Inevitability?
by HereForThemFanfics
Summary: Artemis and Orion were friends. Then Artemis and Orion were enemies. Now, a bit of backstory is in order, isn't it? In which all the characters share one brain cell, and it's Zoe's. Canon Compliant.
1. 1st Impressions: The First Meeting

**Thank you for moving beyond the summary and actually clicking on the story. Before we begin, I'd like to say that this is NOT a shipping fic. I don't see the relationship between Artemis and Orion as romantic in nature, so I'm afraid I would be unable to do it justice in a story of my creation. Instead, I want to explore the friendship that might have been, before all of it ended.**

**Edit: Also, I originally intended this to be an emotional fanfic exploring the mutual admiration, pain, loss, tragedy, of those two characters in a drama of epic proportions, until I actually started writing it and realized within the first two sentences that I didn't actually _want _it to be all dramatic and angsty. Dramatic, yes, angsty, no. In wake of such a realization, I promptly 180'ed mid-sentence and ended up with...this...comedic...thing. The characters are sarcastic, anachronisms are everywhere, and above all, an unhealthy amount of monologuing!**

**So basically...Percy Jackson's Greek Gods.**

**Warnings for this chapter: irreverent humor, Sarcastic!Artemis.**

* * *

Curiosity.

That's what brought her to him, or at least restrained her from shooting him immediately upon finding him on her island, _hunting_, of all things. Clearly he had neglected to read the guide book on Delos. No one was allowed to die there, and that implies that no one was allowed to kill on the island, either. Even a testosterone laden idiot like Heracles would have put the pieces together.

Because it was his eyes, or his lack thereof, as he strode along with a confidence no blind man should possess (this is an oxymoron at best, a blatant violation of the laws of Things That Should Be, at worst). To add insult to injury, he was completely unaided. No talking birds, no anachronistic seeing aids, not even a walking stick. Part of her was tempted to put a tree directly in his path, just to see how he'd react. That'll teach him to disregard cosmic order!

So that's exactly what she did.

To her mild frustration, the moron did not slam face first into the tree trunk. Instead, he stopped, felt the bark, and took two steps to the left, before striding on more leisurely than ever.

Intriguing.

After five more attempts with ever larger trees, she decided that it was time to show herself. Anyone with such tree avoiding skills would be a fine addition to her hunt. Though she still had to do something about the whole hunting on her island thing.

She decided to appear as a fifteen year old. Fifteen seemed like a nice, respectable age to avoid sounding like a bratty half-pint. Because she's not, gods damn it. No matter what Hera said.

"Having fun?" she asked in her most authoritative voice.

The Moron started, fumbling for his bow, "What-who?"

"Sorry to interrupt, actually, not sorry. As I'm sure you're aware, you're not allowed to hunt on sacred ground. Delos is sacred ground. Therefore, you're not allowed to hunt on Delos. Please leave. Have a nice day."

"...I'm on Delos?" he asked after a pause.

_Oh dear_, _this might take a while._

"Are you not aware of this?" She scanned the man's memories, just to be sure.

"I've just been...drifting. Who is this?"

"People refer to me as Artemis." The Moron's face went slack.

"My name is O-orion. P-please don't kill me!"

Orion.

The giant.

Supposedly the one born to annihilate her and her brother Apollo.

_Oh snap._


	2. 1st Impressions: Truce

**Wow.**

**I got a review.**

**Thanks, people. As a new fanfic writer, this means a lot to me.**

**Here's the next chapter!**

**Warnings: references to past myths, irreverent humor, Sarcastic!Artemis**

* * *

Surprise.

Her mortal (or was it immortal?) enemy wasn't what she expected, appearance wise. He wasn't like the forty feet tall Porphyrion her father had to deal with. He's definitely not like those infernal twins, who tried to stack _mountains_, of all the impractical building blocks they could have picked. Which were in _her _domain. Couple that with Otis's plans of marrying her once they take over Olympus, and they were just begging her to personally deliver her own brand of divine retribution. She thought that the killing-each-other bit was a nice touch.

But back to Orion.

He didn't have dragon feet like the giants she's seen. He was 10 feet tall, with wheat toast skin, windswept hair, and was very muscular. She would have pegged him as a demigod, probably one of Poseidon's judging from his water walking earlier, maybe would have even passed as handsome if it wasn't for-

"What happened to your eyes?" she asked in morbid curiosity.

Orion stopped in the middle of his begging for his life to answer. "M-my eyes?"

Artemis inclined her head, then realized that he couldn't see her. "Yes."

"King Oinopian of Chios b-blinded me, my lady."

"Why?"

"I was trying to c-court his daughter, Merope."

Ah.

Typical male. There was a reason she swore off romantic relationships.

But at least he was honest. Other men who had similar experiences often tried to lie to her. Those men had now been added to the wild animal population in the various city-states of Greece. Perhaps the man had better self-preservation instincts than she originally thought.

Besides, his species makes his story intriguing. A giant showing interest in a mortal woman? Practically unheard of. Most giants viewed mortals as beneath them. Pests to be swatted at worst, collateral damage at best.

Well, there was Damasen, and everyone knew how _that one_ turned out.

It suddenly occurred to her that Orion looked the way that he did because he was meant to be _her_ antithesis. It was like those romantic stories (read: doomsday scenarios) that Aphrodite liked to cook up and announce loudly every time Artemis was in earshot, before she made her displeasure known by pinning her to the wall with no less than eight arrows (Artemis was fairly sure Aphrodite still does that, but at least she didn't have to hear it). Artemis meets a man who is nice and virtuous. Artemis falls in love with said man, realizing that not all men are pigs. Artemis gets married.

Artemis is most definitely not going to do that and is honestly offended that people would think up such a thing. Is the concept of a being who simply had no interest in such matters such a difficult thing to grasp?

She resisted the urge to kick him away, or straight up kill him. It wasn't his fault that his very existence was an insult to her established asexuality and aromanticism. That was all Gaea.

Besides, she was short one demigod, and popping by a random nearby island to grab one before coming back to kill the giant might not be the most dignified thing to do.

She realized she had to play this in a completely different way than her usual methods. What was that mortal expression? _Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer._ If Gaea thought she could destroy Artemis by giving her a bane that would make her forget her vow of chastity, she had to prove that she would not give in to her nonexistent hormonal urges.

This was most irregular, but it looked like she would be having a male on her hunt.

* * *

**And so it begins! Mwahahahaha.**

**I was originally going to have them talk it out and have Artemis let him join out of a genuine desire to befriend him. But then I realized: I suck at writing feelings, and I find it difficult for them to morph from "barely knowing each other" to "Wow, join my hunt, my new male friend!" in the span of one chapter. Besides, Artemis letting Orion join the Hunt to spite Gaea is much more fun. Don't worry. The actual friendship and associated feels come later.**

**Stay tuned!**


	3. 1st Impressions: Another Point of View

**Here's chapter three, from Orion's point of view this time.**

**Warnings: Internalized monologuing, anachronisms**

**Reviews make me happy, so please do that.**

**Thank you and enjoy.**

* * *

Amusement.

That was what Orion sensed from his supposed worst enemy as he begged for mercy. Dry amusement, coupled with mild perplexity. She must have found this situation ironic.

It was terrifying.

Part of him wondered what took her so long to strike. The other part wished she'd just get it over with.

Perhaps he might be allowed to go free, since Delos is sacred ground and no one's allowed to die there. Although, considering that said ground was sacred to Artemis, there was every possibility that she would allow an exception. And turning him into an animal wasn't off the list of options, either.

He didn't want to fight the gods. There was a reason he refrained from participating in the Giant War. He had come into the Earth, taken one look at his vengeful brethren, bloodthirsty and consumed by a hatred of something they've never even known, and yeeted out of there. He valued his free will far too much to follow someone blindly, which is ironic, because he was now blind.

(Though sometimes, he wondered why his mother still allowed him to roam the earth, considering what she did with the _other_ disobedient child for something far less).

He took a deep breath, wondering if he could talk his way out of this one. It hadn't worked effectively on Merope. It worked even less effectively on her father. But the silence was getting uncomfortable, and if she was going to turn him into a wild animal anyway, it wouldn't hurt to try.

He was working up his best "I come in peace" speech when the goddess spoke.

"Do you know where Mount Etna is?"

"Y-yes, my lady." For a moment, he wondered if she was planning to work around killing him on Delos by pitching him into a volcano. It seemed rather inconveniently distantly located for an execution site, compared to, say, _Mykonos_, which was practically next door.

She must have heard his thoughts, because her next words sounded exasperated, "I am not going to kill you. I reserve that fate for those who have transgressed their boundaries with intent, which you have not done. I was merely suggesting that you go to Hephestus. Tell him your story, and perhaps he would sympathize with you enough to help you with your...visual disability," she said those two words like she thought that he at least somewhat had it coming. "After that, you are to come back to Delos. While your actions are unintentional, I cannot let it go unpunished."

Come back to Delos? His first instinct was to shout "So long, sucker!" and run away as far as possible the moment he got his sight back. He was a hunter. With insanely refined instincts even if first impressions suggest otherwise. Which were all screaming at him to run away, or attack, or both. It would have worked too, if he was dealing with anyone else.

Unfortunately for him, Artemis is the immortal _goddess_ of hunting. And if the stories are true, she could just aim at him the moment he took the first step edge wise and let the arrow fly. Or send a wild animal to maul him, if she was feeling particularly vexed. Or turn him into an animal. Or turn him into an animal and send a wild animal to maul him-

"Are you quite done?" she asked. There was definitely exasperation in her voice now.

He nodded. "I am, my lady. Thank you, Lady Artemis, for sparing my life. And for aiding me."

He waited for a response. Then he realized that she was already gone.

_Wow, my worst enemy is actually a nice person! She didn't even try to kill me, which was more than I could say about King Oinopian of Chios._

Artemis wasn't what he expected. And he was most definitely fascinated by her.

_Now which way was Mt. Etna again?_

* * *

**Mwahahahaha. Yep, Artemis left him to find Mt. Etna by himself, which, by the way, takes _nine days_ on foot according to Google Maps. And that's if he does nothing but walking. You didn't think she'd let her join his hunt by going _easy_ on him, do you?**

**Mykonos, by the way, is supposedly the battle between the gods and the giants took place. It is very close to Delos, and since Orion is a giant...yeah.**

**Thank you for making it this far, and as I said before, please review!**

**Stay tuned for next chapter.**


	4. 1st Impressions: Saucery

**Hello, all!**

**New chapter.**

**Warnings: internal monologuing, bizzare humor, anachronisms, anachronisms everywhere. **

**As always, reviews are appreciated.**

* * *

Predictable.

That was how Artemis felt when she was reading Orion's mind. _Killing and turning people into animals, really?_ She was going to have to be more creative when dishing out punishments.

Artemis watched him stalk over to a tree, running his hands across the bark until they settled on a patch of mold.

_Ah, _Clever. Since they were in the northern hemisphere, the sun (hello, Helios) would be coming from slightly south. Thus, a tree's northern face would be the side that mold grew.

Orion finally found where West was and stalked off in that direction with surprising speed.

That brought her a little time. Mt. Etna was in Italy, after all. It was time to move on to phase two of her plan.

Line breaks break lines

Hecate was on good terms with Artemis. Hecate scored brownie points with her by occasionally helping her with the more magical side of hunting. Artemis scored brownie points with Hecate by occasionally rescuing one of her daughters from being married off to abusive husbands, which happened far too often for her liking. Perhaps she should inflict a plague upon a city to make her displeasure known. Athens seemed like a good place to start, though she was going to risk Athena's wrath...

"Hello, Artemis," Hecate's voice interrupted her thoughts, and she filed "Destroy Athens" away for another time.

Hecate was in her cave, bent over a silvery piece of cloth. Artemis was never sure why Hecate picked caves for practicing magic, though considering that Artemis liked to hang out with her Hunters in secluded forests, she couldn't exactly judge.

"Hecate," she nodded towards the titan, "How have you been?"

"Well. You came just in time: I have just finished tweaking the enchantments on this," she held up the cloth. "You can help me beta test it."

"Fascinating," Artemis studied the cloth. "What is it?"

Hecate smiled, "Step back."

When she did, Hecate tossed it on the ground, and instantly, the cloth expanded into a 7 by 7 cubit tent.

"The interior is air conditioned," Hecate told an awed Artemis, "It can fit four people, and has a buffet table and sleeping bags inside. Anything you put inside will collapse with the tent. I believe your hunters will find this useful."

Hecate muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Alpha, beta, gamma, one, two, three," and the tent collapsed back into a handkerchief. She picked it up and handed it to Artemis. "Update me on the condition of the enchantments once in a while. And change the password for collapsing the tent to something more secure."

Artemis thought for a moment. Then a wickedly sharp grin came over her face, "_Actaeon_."

If Hecate found that strange, she didn't show it. "Now what is the reason of your visit?"

Another line break that breaks lines, because line breaks that do not break lines are useless.

When Artemis told Hecate her plan, the latter merely inclined her head in thought. Hecate wasn't the judgmental type, which was one of the things Artemis liked about her. "That takes quite a lot of effort to pull off. Very well, I will see what I can do. Come back in three days."

Three days? It took about nine days for a mortal to travel from Delos to Mount Etna, and nine more to travel back. Even if Orion was a giant, that should still be enough time for Hecate to prepare.

Artemis nodded, "Thank you."

Do line breaks break lines? Or are broken lines notated by line breaks?

Sometime later, Artemis looked to her titan companion, "What does 'air-conditioned' mean?"

"I've absolutely no idea."

* * *

**What was Artemis's plan? Stay tuned to find out!**

**Ancient Greece was _not_ a champion of women's rights. Especially Athens, which was _notoriously _bad. This probably wouldn't sit well with Artemis, which was why Athens was on her hit list. **

**Why didn't Athena do anything about it, if she was its patron goddess? **

**Well, this play called the _Eumenides_ had her saying something along the lines of "I'm always going to take the side of the male, except for marriage, because I technically don't have a mother, being born from Zeus's head and all. So killing your husband is not okay, no matter how much of a douche he was, but killing your mother is okay, because the mom's only job is to carry the kid and doesn't actually contribute to, you know, providing the genetic material (the Ancient Greeks had a very loose grasp of biology back then)."**

**Yeah. **

**This was probably just the playwright's bigotry showing through, but still. Not cool, Athena.**

**Maybe Artemis _did _eventually enact her plan to destroy Athens, during the Pelopennesian War. Look up the Plague of Athens. **

**Well, Hecate was fun to write. I have no idea why I decided to make Hecate's magic sound _tech-y_, but I don't regret it one bit. Clarke's third law, I guess?**

**And yep, that was the same tent that showed up in the_ Blood of Olympus_. And that was how air conditioning was introduced to the hunters several millennia too early. Anachronisms are fun, aren't they?**


	5. 1st Impressions: Ambush

**Hello.**

**Gather around, children.**

**So. The new chapter is here. Unfortunately, I'm heading off to college. This is my last day actually at home, so from this point on, my updates will be more irregular and probably a lot less often. **

**Don't worry, this fic is not dead. I haven't hit a writer's block yet (those are the worst, aren't they?). I will still be updating. Maybe. If I get more reviews. I'm keeping the next chapter hostage until then. Mwahahahaha.**

**Just kidding. Seriously though, reviews are ****appreciated and gives the author motivation (these things work better than caffeine, I swear).**

**Warnings: irreverent humor, anachronisms, Orion fully jumping on the Sarcasm bandwagon.**

**Without further ado, _allons-y_!**

* * *

Surreal.

That was how Orion felt when he trekked back to Delos, which was taking a lot less time now that he could actually see.

It had taken him a while to find Mount Etna, but Hephaestus was surprisingly hospitable for someone who didn't seem to interact much with people. He even gave him a cool parting gift in the form of new eyes. Which were _awesome_, because said new eyes allowed him to see outside the visible light spectrum without developing severe cataracts. He would have requested laser eyes, but he didn't want to push his luck.

It was such a beautiful day, too. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. When he got back to Delos, he was going to thank Artemis for helping him. Maybe leave a bunch of sacrifices on her alter later on. More than usual, anyway.

_What do you think of me now, Mother? That I would worship my sworn enemy?_

An arrow almost took off his nose.

Wait, what?

He looked around with his new eyes, spotting patches of gray hidden in the trees. About twenty girls stood camouflaged around the forest, bows drawn. Somehow, while he was reflecting on how great his day was going, the girls had surrounded him.

_The Hunters of Artemis. Oh, _please _don't tell me Artemis changed her mind about not killing me._

"Stop," he shouted, holding up his hands, "I come in peace."

"When do men _ever _come in peace?" the one in the lead wondered aloud. "Identify yourself, male. Why do you disturb our hunt?"

"My name is Orion. I'm on my way to Delos as per Artemis's instructions, and I mean no harm to-"

He was cut off quite rudely by another arrow. Only his reflexes saved him from instant decapitation, which wouldn't actually kill him, being a giant and all, but it would _hurt_, Father damn it. It occurred to him that perhaps introducing himself as their mistress's worst enemy and then telling them that he was headed to said mistress's birthplace might not have been the most tactical move.

_Mother damn it, where are my powers of charisma when I need it?_

"You're Orion," the girl in the lead gasped, before nocking another arrow.

Orion did what any sane person would do in that situation. He turned and fled.

_What is this? Another line break?_

Breaking the line wasn't difficult. The girls weren't big. Most of them were prepubescent. He was a 10 foot giant. One did not need to be Athena to do the math. Most of them scattered like bowling pins at the suddenly charging giant.

_What's a bowling pin?_ He wondered, before deciding that running was more important.

It was outpacing them that was the problem.

Orion thought he was fast. It had taken him merely five days to journey from Delos to Mt. Etna. After a few false starts, of course. One could not blame him for being a few degrees off course and having that effect snowball until he hit Malta, but he digressed.

The point is, he was fast. Not even the square cube law could slow him down, since the application such trivial things as _science_ were basically optional for him, so he had twice the stride length and none of the complications. So _how_ in the realm of Erebus, the World of Helheim, and the Kingdom of Osiris _were they still right behind him?!_

After a good hour of running (Honestly, this was getting ridiculous), he decided that his best option was to hide. After pulling slightly ahead of the hunters, he shimmied himself into a rotting log, put on some basic camouflage, and waited for the footsteps to pass.

Oh yeah, it was time to try out his new eyes. It took a bit of tweaking, but eventually, he found a setting labelled "infrared" that seemed to detect body heat. His bare skin was a bright yellow, while his clothes were darker blue. Whatever he touched left a bright imprint that slowly faded.

So that was cool. He looked around with his new eyes for the hunters' heat signatures.

Nothing.

How was that possible?

He didn't have much time to ponder that question, because a roar nearby sounded so loudly the log shook.

* * *

**And the lesson here, kids, is to never tempt fate by assuming that you're having a good day. **

**Okay, let's see...author's notes.**

**I know that in _The_ _Blood of Olympus_, Orion went to Hephaestus first. In this fanfic, I decided to tweak the timeline just a little bit, for additional drama. Also, to set up the beginnings of the friendship a bit better. Maybe I'll hand wave the canon by saying that Orion mis-remembered the timeline (it has been a couple thousand years, you know), or was flat out lying. Anyway, drama.**

**Cataracts. It's a condition in which the lenses in your eyes stop being transparent, which leads to all sorts of problems. There are some cases where people with severe cataracts develop the ability to see into the ultraviolet spectrum. Which is pretty cool, I guess, but seriously, would you give up normal sight for that?**

**Square cube law. Also known as the thing that every movie ignores. Basically, an object's mass is a function of its volume (think cube). The object's ability to hold itself up is a function of its area (think square). Therefore, you can only build an object so big before it collapses under the weight of its own mass. It's one of the reasons people with gigantism don't tend to live long. It's sad, but true.**

**So you noticed that I referenced Egyptian and Norse mythology in this. By the way, a bit of Trivia (get it? Trivia? because it's Hecate's Roman form? No? Alright I'll just sit in a corner): In book 9 of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, THE book on Greco-Roman Mythology, guess who shows up? Isis and Anubis. And this isn't even the story of Io, Zeus's girlfriend/Hera's cow, in which she eventually made it to Egypt and became the goddess Isis. They were actually there, mentioned by name, doing goddy things in _Crete_. I thought that tidbit of information was amazing.**

**Oh, by the way, there's totally a reason why the Hunters' body had no heat signatures. I'll give you a hint: it had nothing to do with biology and everything to do with Hecate.**

**Wow, my chapter lengths are getting longer and longer. IDK, guys, should I make future chapters about this long? Go back to about being 500 words? Make it longer? Purge all notion of appropriate chapter length and word count; this is my fanfic, and by the gods above, I will do what I want? Tell me what you think.**


	6. 1st Impressions: What is Real?

**I'm baaaaaaack!**

**So I moved in to college, everything's great, etc, etc.**

**So I thought I'd take some time and post a new chapter before the classwork buries me.**

**Thanks to all who have reviewed. I really appreciate it.**

**I'll take some time to answer them.**

**In general: Well, pretty much all of you told me to make longer chapters, and welp, who am I to argue? Longer chapters you seek and longer chapters you shall receive.**

**The Argonauts: Yes, the gods do both misogyny and bestiality. Given their shape shifting abilities, it's quite difficult to find the line.**

** As for the Greek gods being _copies_ of the Egyptian gods...kind of but not really? I mean, the Greeks definitely drew **_**some** _**inspiration from the Egyptian gods. But also the Mesopotamian, Minoan, etc, etc. It wasn't really copying as much as cultural diffusion. Like, archaeologists think that Hermes and Pan used to be the same god, and that god came from some sort of proto-Indo-European religion that was the root of the Norse, Greek, and Vedic mythologies. _Ovid_and the Romans, on the other hand...that was pretty blatant copying, yeah, haha. **

**As for Erictonius, it's true that some mythologies depict him as the child of Hephaestus and Gaea. From what _Percy Jackson's Greek Gods_ told us, I kind of saw it Gaea as the incubator, essentially, while Athena was the actual mother. As for Orion, there are some versions in which he was a giant, and there was that one obscure version where he was _very_ technically born of the earth. Something about a bunch of gods peeing into a bull's hide. Greek mythology is not known for its continuity. **

**Lancelot-07: That's four women XD. But I know what you mean. I'll consider putting them in. Oh, and don't worry. The plot is coming. It's just getting off to a slow start.**

**Siegfried Slayer: You want conflict? Oh, it's coming. *Smiles ominously*. As for the hunters relying on magic and being untouched by nature, I don't think that's entirely true. Sure, you have the nice tents and stuff, but you also have the gritty murdering stuff, and you can bet that they have survival skills packed under their belts. And they worship Artemis, who's a nature goddess, so it wouldn't make sense if they don't do nature stuff. As for Orion, I don't think he's really completely immersed in nature, either. Remember, the first time he showed up in _The Blood of Olympus,_ he was carrying a compound bow. Which is modern, so he was close enough to civilization to keep up with the times. And as you'll find out in this chapter, there's a very good reason the hunters didn't have heat signatures.**

**Illuminatishadow: Thank you for the encouragement! You bring up some very good points. But a tiny correction: celibacy isn't an option if you're a Greek mortal, but if you're a Greek goddess...loophole found. **

**As for Artemis being asexual, Rick Riordan pretty much confirmed it over Twitter, and I kinda like that interpretation. **

**Artemis and Orion: it's true that there are versions that portray them as romantic, but as I've said in the first chapter, I don't want to ship them. Romance isn't really my area, and I kind of want to take this opportunity to have some badly needed AceAro representation. Basically, I intend this to be a friendship fic.**

**Well, I hope I haven't bored you too badly.**

**Warnings: anachronisms, mild language, gratuitous foreign language, far too much internal monologuing to be healthy.**

**Without further interruptions, the next chapter.**

* * *

Disbelief.

He couldn't believe the day he was having.

His first instinct was that of a hunter: crawl out, confront the monster, kill it before it killed him.

Then he remembered the homicidal girls outside and decided that perhaps staying put and letting them handle it might be safer. He was still on their hit list, after all, and even if he took care of the more immediate problem for them, he had no idea how they're going to react to him killing a monster that they could have potentially taken with ease and claiming that he "saved" them from it. So he'd just watch and only step in if they began to struggle.

"So _you_ are the Hunters of Artemis," it growled, "I expected better." It had a strange accent. Persian, maybe. Orion frowned. Could it be…?

"Foul creature," a girl's voice rang out. "You are not welcome here."

The creature snarled, "My name is _Xâr_! And I will not be threatened by a group of pre-ARGH!"

The first arrow had been shot.

While the battle began in earnest, he got a glimpse of the monster. It was as he suspected: a manticore.

Well, that changed things.

Manticores were notoriously difficult to kill. Not only did they like to eat people whole, bones, skin, and all, they also had an unfortunate tendency to shoot vemenous projectiles out of their tails.

In other words, it was more than a match for the hunters' ranged weapons.

Their only advantage as of this moment was their numbers, which in this case would mean nothing because of the sheer speed the manticore could shoot thorns. Greater numbers generally meant lower mobility, and if they couldn't dodge in time...

...He was going to have to step in, wasn't he?

There was a cry of pain: someone had been hit, and it wasn't the manticore. He risked another peek and saw two hunters help their fallen comrade, who had been hit in the shoulder with a spike. It wouldn't kill her, but the venom would make it excruciatingly painful within the next few minutes.

_Oof._

Making a decision, he shimmied back out of his hiding place, ducked behind a tree, and started playing defense, shooting down the spikes as they came flying.

One of the hunters turned, trying to see where the arrows came from, but apparently couldn't find anything. She gave up on searching when a spike flew by an inch from her face.

He had calculated its trajectory, of course, but still. Far too close for comfort.

The hunters picked up the slack fast enough. Within a few minutes, the girls had shot the manticore with so many arrows that he resembled a porcupine.

The manticore collapsed, dead. The hunters turned to their unexpected ally.

Orion kept hidden, wondering if they'd try to kill him again now that he'd helped them kill a monster.

Silence.

More silence.

…...

Feeling distinctly unnerved, Orion stole a glance back at the hunters.

He blinked.

The hunters had vanished.

He frowned, then proceeded to go through every setting he could find with his eyes, hoping that at least _one_ of them would let him catch a glimpse of him.

Nothing.

He looked towards the body of the fallen manticore on infrared. A dull orange, with the body slowly turning dark. He looked back towards where the hunters were supposed to be. Not even so much as a vague outline. _What was going on?_

He turned back to the visible light spectrum, and scanned his surroundings. Maybe they'd managed to move away? It seemed unlikely. His time without eyes had sharpened his other senses: he would have heard something. Besides, the infrared vision would have shown some residual heat coming from the clearing.

Either the hunters had camouflage so advanced that they could pass undetected through the entire light spectrum, or…

"They were never there at all," he realized. "It was the _Mist_."

Part of him was impressed. Another part of him was confused. The biggest part of him was pissed off.

He did not like being played for a fool.

He was going to have a _word_ with a certain goddess. Possibly two goddesses, if his suspicions were correct.

Right after he cleaned up, of course. He had some manticore venom to harvest.

* * *

**Aw geez. The author's notes are longer than the actual chapter. **

**So this was Artemis's plan, way back in chapter 4. Why did she do this? Find out in the next chapter.**

**As for the manticore, this is, in fact, Dr. Thorn. He called himself _Xâr, _which is "thorn" in Persian (aka Farsi). At least, that's what Google Translate told me. Someone confirm, please?**

**Also, I think I figured out the reason Dr. Thorn had a French accent. Sort of. Manticores aren't technically part of Greek mythology. They're Persian. So if America had the Greek gods, and they spoke English...what country is just across a small body of water from the British Isles, with which they had gone to war at some point?**

**I thought I'd make a parallel between Orion and Artemis involving the hunters and the manticore. Because parallelisms make literature good. At least, that's what my English teachers told me.**

**As always, reviews are appreciated. Thank you for making it this far.**


	7. 1st Impressions: 40 Hours a Day

**Hi guys! I'm-*gets hit by an 18 pound turkey***

**Oww. Yes, I'm sorry about the radio silence for-what was it, 4 months now? College is _hard_, okay?**

***Dodges arrow.***

**Um...*plucks arrow with extreme caution. Takes off note attached to the shaft* **

***Reads note***

**Where am I during Thanksgiving? Well, I was mostly doing term projects for college-**

***Dodges another rock***

**Alright, alright, I'm sorry! I'm here now, so here's another chapter. Enjoy!**

***Disappears into void***

* * *

Disgruntled.

In all the years of her life (and that's gotta be, what, several centuries now?) she had never been filled with such a strong desire to _practice_.

She was one of the archer twins, and she's the _better_ archer twin. She didn't need to practice, because there's no one better than her. That's not just her opinion. It's an objective fact.

So when she saw Orion shooting down the thorny projectiles with arrows with the same ease she was used to, all she could think of is, "Holy me, that's my job."

And now she was even more split between killing him and recruiting him.

_You came this far. Stick with the plan._

All things considered, Orion passed the test with the mistforms with flying colors. He didn't try to interfere until they actually needed help, and even then he left the killing to the hunters. She'd even say he had a bit of a hero complex, though he wasn't aggressive about it the same way the foolhardy actual heroes of these days were. Just ask Bellerophon and his abuse of his power over Pegasus. Or Theseus and his plan to kidnap Helen, who was flipping _twelve_, and make her his wife. _Douchebags_.

It was the same reason she chose to use mistforms instead of her real followers, really. Heroes had a tendency to kill people when things went sideways, and she didn't want to lose her companions over something as stupid as what was essentially a personality test in a job interview.

_What the heck is a job interview? Eh, I'll ask Athena later. She'll know. In the meantime..._

She was going to thank Hecate later. Maybe drop off a few pelts for her cave, or hunt a few rare monsters for their potion ingredients. That manticore the mistforms killed with those rocks disguised as arrows might still have some leftover venom after Orion finished harvesting it. Those didn't really show up in Greece. Heck, _she _didn't know what it was doing there, and she's the goddess of _hunting_. She usually have some idea of the movements of prey, even mythical ones. Might be because it was outside her pantheon, or something. She'll have a talk with Ohrmazd sometime. Maybe get him to ask Ahriman to tone down a bit on the destructive tendencies.

Speaking of destructive tendencies…

The giant Orion was marching toward Delos with a vengeful purpose in his gait. He's gotten himself a new pair of eyes, though it didn't look like regular eyes as much as mechanical pieces that fit over them. Hephaestus's handiwork, without a doubt. He had gotten into something he had called "steampunk" recently. Artemis recognized the distinctive style instantly, though he and Apollo had an argument when he first saw it ("Why are you using a style that wouldn't exist for another three millienia?!" "Well, it exists now!"). Nonetheless, she had no doubt that they could see just as well, if not better, than his original eyes.

She couldn't help but wonder if she made the right choice, however, as he marched towards her island with astounding speed.

_Oh, he's caught on, hadn't he?_

* * *

"My lady," Orion said stiffly, keeping his head bowed. Never let it be said that he didn't have good manners.

"Orion," Artemis looked like a fifteen year old-Orion wondered why. "I was wondering if you would show up."

_Be polite. Try not to piss off the homicidal goddess. _

"Who am I to disobey the whims of a goddess?"

_Holy mother, that was far too passive-aggressive. _

Artemis raised her eyebrow. "Indeed. You have proven yourself to be interesting, for a man."

"...Thank you?"

"Congratulations with the manticore." Did he hear a smirk in her voice?

"Thank you, lady Artemis," he said again, trying to be polite and confrontational at the same time and only succeeding in the former.

"And the Hunters."

_My gods. She wasn't even _trying _to hide it._

"Yes, my lady." Then, before he could lose his courage completely, he added, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"I do, actually." When she didn't elaborate, he cautiously ventured on, "Did you...put them in my path?"

"Technically, that was Hecate. But yes, it was my idea." She walked closer to him, "Congratulations. You pass the test."

"Test, my lady?"

"Yes. It's a Secret Test of Character™ . You passed. Well done."

"I'm...not sure I understand."

"For your initialization into the ranks of the Hunters," she explained patiently. "This is irregular, but well done. You're invited to join my Hunters."


	8. 1st Impressions: The Choice

**So hi.**

**Admittedly, I was planning to post this sooner. Unfortunately, 4 months of hiatus (sorry about that again) means that the writing style of this fic was not resonating at all with my state of mind, which meant a lot of rereading and rewriting to make sure that my current writing remotely sounded like my past writing. **

**Nonetheless, the new chapter is here.**

**Also, I made a mistake in this chapter. Apparently, Crete was almost due south of Delos. So I fixed it. **

* * *

_Nani_.

That was all encompassing thought in Orion's mind when he heard the words.

When he recovered enough to process the words, he almost blanked out again.

Artemis had invited him to do _what _now?

For one thing, he was supposed to be her worst enemy. One did not simply invite one's own worst enemy to be in a position where they could easily hurt them, not if one is sane (he was starting to doubt that bit quite a lot at this point). For another, he was fairly sure he wasn't a girl.

"Me, lady Artemis?" He pointed to himself, then glanced around, just to make sure she was talking to the right person.

"Yes."

"Um...why?"

"Because you have proven yourself to be an...hmm..._adequate_ hunter, and does not seem to be an entirely horrible person. Also, as you're supposed to be my worst enemy, I really couldn't have someone like you running around the place unchecked."

"And if I refuse?"

"Well, I _suppose _I'd have to kill you. It requires more effort than it's worth, though, and quite frankly, I'm not feeling it today. Hence, the choice."

It wasn't much of a choice. Orion rather liked staying on Earth, and from the testimony he heard from one of the Cyclopes working in Hephaestus's forge, he had come to the conclusion that he really, _really _didn't want to join his brethren in Tartarus.

He was _really _not a fan of having someone else impose their will on him though. It was near the top of his List of Reasons He Didn't Serve Gaea (Yes, he had one of those. No, he didn't just make it up). Couple that with how much he'd been played a few days ago, there really wasn't a way he'd be talked into doing this without having the last word.

"If you truly wanted to recruit me because I was too dangerous otherwise, you'd come to me the moment the War was over. You easily could have set up your character test and I'd be none the wiser, or better yet, ambushed me with a demigod in tow and dispatched me. Heck, you could have done that while I was coming back to Delos. I don't think you wanted to kill me at all, Lady Artemis."

A smirk played at her lips. "I will neither confirm nor deny that statement. Anything else?"

"Why go to such lengths to recruit me into the Hunt? Not that I'm not grateful for you not killing me, but from a practical perspective, it would be much simpler to get rid of me. And why choose to do so _now_?"

For a moment, there was just silence. Orion was starting to worry that he said the wrong thing before the goddess spoke again.

"I'll be honest," Artemis tilted her head. "I completely forgot that you existed until you stumbled upon my birthplace. And I find you intriguing, giant. I'm curious to see what you will do next."

"I see." Orion thought that was the vaguest answer she could have possibly given, but he decided not to push it. "Then I accept your offer, Lady Artemis."

"Very well. Repeat after me. _I, Orion, pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt._"

Orion's mind almost went _Nani_ again.

_Uh_, Orion thought as he repeated the lines. He resisted the urge to comment, because he was pretty sure Artemis would have shot him in the face.

As if hearing his thoughts, Artemis continued, "_Yes_, I know. As I have said before, you are a special case. Just don't try anything with my Hunters. Or anybody else, for that matter, and you'll be fine," she actually sounded a bit embarrassed.

"Right."

"And I suppose I should warn you that my Hunters might not accept you immediately. There is every chance that in their eyes, you were the embodiment of everything that was wrong in their lives before they came into my service."

_My gods, what have I gotten myself into?_

"Duly noted," he said weakly.

"Do try to be patient. Now I must take my leave. _Someone_ needs to make sure you do not get shot on sight. My Hunters are in the woods in Crete. I trust that you can get yourself there."

"Yes, my lady," he bowed as she disappeared in a flash of light.

He felt a very peculiar sense of _deja vu_ as he turned southward and started running.

* * *

**And with that, Orion is officially part of the hunt. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean he was _part_ of the hunt, so stay tuned. **


	9. 1st Impressions: Skepticism

**Guess who's back?**

**First off-Happy New Year! And Decade, if you want to be clever about it. A great time for family, festivities, and food. Lots of food. And Mahjong. **

**So good stuff. Fuzzy feelings all around. **

**Here's the next chapter!**

* * *

Incredulity.

That was the general atmosphere surrounding the Hunters. Incredulity, peppered with concern for their mistress' sanity. Artemis even sensed suspicion coming from one of them.

Artemis couldn't really blame anyone for that last one. It hadn't even been a year since Dear Old Dad paid the Hunters a visit, and barely a month since they had to deal with the fallout. It was going to be a long time before Artemis (or any of them, really) could get over Callisto **[1]**. They were right to be wary. Artemis figured that she had a few seconds before their general incredulity turned into active protest.

"I understand that this is unorthodox," she continued, ignoring the boiling rage every time she thought of her favorite Hunter. "Bear in mind that I'm _not_ going back on my vow, nor will the terms and conditions of the Hunt will be any different. This is simply a test run. If it does not work out, it will never be attempted again."

One of Artemis's Hunters raised her hand.

"Yes, Phoebe?"

"My lady, is it wise for the first male to join the Hunt to be a giant? Not that I'm insinuating that you are unwise, my lady!" she said hastily. "But-"

"I understand your concern," Artemis said. "Nonetheless, I have a policy of nondiscrimination by species. Furthermore, Orion had made it clear that his allegiance is not with the Earth Mother, nor does he harbor any hatred towards the gods. Plus, he's competent. Thus, he would be more than an adequate candidate, regardless of his birth."

_And his status as the giant destined to destroy me and Apollo. Best not to remind them of that bit._

"But-" The ginger-haired hunter caught herself. "Yes, my lady."

"I expect you all to treat him...hm, not necessarily _well_," Artemis was being realistic here, "but with respect, and do your utmost to avoid treating him differently because of his gender. If he is to be a member of the Hunt, he must be treated as such. And if he is to be our experiment, we must avoid skewing the results. Is that understood?"

A brief hesitation. Then all of them nodded.

"Thank you," Artemis said. She could only hope that her Hunters would be open-minded enough for this arrangement to not end in bloodshed. "He will be here in approximately 9 hours."

Artemis lazed in the shadow of a tree and tried to calm her jittering nerves. She couldn't help but feel that she had just pit an immovable object and an unstoppable force against each other, and now they were on a collision course not even she could stop.

_You're overthinking this_, she told herself. _You just have to prove to yourself that you will not be tempted to break your oath with him in close proximity to you. Nothing to worry about. It will work out fine. Yeah. If it comes down to it, you could just kill him. _

It was amazing and depressing how fast her train of thought arrived at murder.

Perhaps she really did need to change up her _modus_ _operandi_. She was becoming too set in her ways.

Shaking that train of thought off, she turned her thoughts to the newest member of the Hunt. The giant had shown a rather quick wit when he wasn't too busy cowering in front of her (she'll have to fix that last part. From what she understood about most healthy relationships, romantic or otherwise, neither party usually did that in front of the other) or too disoriented to form a coherent thought. Another sign that Orion wasn't _at all _like his brethren: he had an IQ in the positive numbers. Artemis absently wondered if he really was the same species as the rest of the giants she had fought in the Giant War.

If she was perfectly honest with herself (and she usually was: she believed in the importance of self-awareness), if Orion were female and not a giant, she would have wasted no time in trying to befriend him. His (admittedly impressive) skills aside, his general attitude towards life and destiny...well, they reminded Artemis of herself.

An uncomfortable thought, but it made sense, considering that he was meant to be her antithesis.

"My lady?" A voice broke her out of her thoughts. It was her new Lieutenant, Zoe.

Artemis looked up. "Yes, Zoe?"

"Phoebe spotted someone," Zoe pointed northwards. "A male hunter. Would that be him, my lady?"

_Ah. Showtime._

* * *

**Next chapter, Orion arrives. Yippee.**

**[1]. Taken from _Percy Jackson's Greek Gods_. Callisto, the nymph with whom Artemis was best buddies before Zeus disguised himself as Artemis (I know right?) and raped her. As a result, she got pregnant, Artemis found out about it, turned her into a bear, and exiled her from the Hunters. Yeah. _Harsh. _**

**At this point, I'm just trying to get the friendship part going, because if slow burn friendship is a genre, this is what it would look like. This is way too slow, even for me. Hence this somewhat filler-y chapter. I don't write enough fluffy pieces to be good at this _emotion_ business. Sorry for making you all suffer.**

**But, uh, please do review. Constructive criticism is appreciated. **

**See ya!**


	10. 1st Impressions: Acceptance?

**...And I'm back. College is starting again, like _tomorrow_, so this is going to be the last update in a while. **

**Remember, reviews make me happy and give me motivation!**

* * *

Wary.

Evidently, the feeling was quite mutual.

Orion stared at the Hunters, raising his hands in an I-come-in-peace gesture. The girls stared back, unimpressed.

"Greetings," he waved in an awkward attempt to appear affable. "My name is-"

"We know thy name," the girl in the lead interrupted.

"Right," he was about five seconds from breaking into cold sweat. The tension was palpable. "I'm here to join the Hunters."

"So we have been told." The girl did not sound happy.

"Ah..." he struggled to think of something to say. "Thank you for not shooting me on sight?"

"The goddess forbade us," she said dismissively, recognizing his attempt to break the ice for it was.

"Ah." the short, one sentence answers, along with borderline hostile stares were freaking him out. "So, does one of you mind showing me around?"**  
**

Orion was designated the honorable job of cooking food for the entire camp. He got the feeling the girls had done this in an attempt to be ironic. Orion just thought they were being petty.

A man doing a woman's job, while the actual women hunted...Yes, Orion thought this was exactly the kind of situation in which the Hunters would find humor. All at his expense, of course.

He put up with it, though. Partially because he had to, and partially because...well, Artemis was kind of cool.

He had been a hunter, after all, before the whole incident with Merope and the hot iron. Hunters worshipped her by default, and he made it a point to follow their example.

He wasn't even sure why he insisted on sacrificing to the goddess. He certainly didn't have to, considering that being Artemis's bane meant that he automatically was good at hunting, and being the bane of both archery twins meant that he was deadly with a bow. Perhaps he wanted to blend in with the rest of the city's hunters (Oinopian would have a fit if he realized that the Orion that was Chios's best hunter was the same Orion that was an Olympian goddess's worst enemy.) Perhaps it was an act of rebellion against his mother-he had the habit of taunting Gaea every time he made a sacrifice to the gods- it was a minor miracle that she hadn't retaliated yet.

He was too afraid to admit, even to himself, that the most likely reason was to get Artemis's attention.

He was always a bit different from the rest of his brethren. For one, he was the only one curious enough to look up information about the gods before attacking them. Even Enceladus, hypothetically the smartest of the giants, was too busy coming up with battle plans to do research.

So he disguised himself as a son of Poseidon (to account for his towering figure and the ability to walk on water) and skipped to the nearest city-state.

The things he had heard and the mortal friends he made would eventually lead him to desert his siblings.

Apollo's stories were rather generic, if he were honest. Gods doing things, slaughtering Python, causing plagues...what else was new?. He was too loud, too flashy. Orion found him rather dull.

Artemis, on the other hand…

Never had he thought that he would relate so much to anyone, much less his worst enemy. Someone who clearly didn't fit into the standard of expected behavior? Check. A person who rejected her destiny in favor of pursuing something else? Something that he could get behind: he didn't like being told what to do, either.

The fact that she liked spending time in the forest didn't hurt his opinion of her either. Orion was completely and utterly entranced.

So he made his sacrifices, partially as a peace offering, and partially as a prayer to meet her in person. Now that he got his wish, his admiration didn't end.

"Orion!" a sharp voice called.

...Although, it would be nice if he could get along with her Hunters.

He straightened. "May I help you, Phoebe?"

The ginger-haired Hunter regarded him distrustfully. Orion was starting to get tired of the suspicious glances, though they didn't exactly mistreat him.

"You've been scrubbing for the past thirty minutes," she told him. "You're going to wear a hole through that thing."

"There's still burned food stuck at the bottom of it," he tried to protest.

"Whatever. There's a new recruit that came today. Zoe wants everyone by the fire."

It wasn't until a week later, when the said new recruit, Agatha, worked up the courage to ask Orion if his new eyes were detachable that he truly felt that he fit in with the rest of the Hunters. Apparently, his mechanical eyes had drawn the curiosity of many, and now that the dam was broken, Orion found himself bombarded with questions.

Artemis watched from afar, satisfied. It had taken more than a month, but the biggest obstacle had been overcome.

Maybe this arrangement would work out, after all.

* * *

**Thus concludes section one of this fanfic. Section two will be posted once I'm done writing it.**


	11. 2nd Guesses: The Meddling Goddess

**So...****Hello. ****It's me!**

**You thought you'd never see me again, didn't you?**

**I hope quarantine is treating you well, even though we all know it probably hasn't. Nonetheless, generic greetings with reference to this pandemic seem obligatory during these difficult times.**

**See? Second nature at this point. **

**On with the story, then. Now that school's out, I finally have time.**

**Warnings: Slight acephobic/arophobic language. Passing comment about bestiality (nothing graphic). Discussion of forced marriages. **

* * *

Doomed.

Orion is completely, utterly _screwed_. He was going to have to change his name, leave a false trail, and start a new life in India. He was going to Tartarus with arrows sticking out of sensitive places. He was never going to be welcomed on the surface world ever again.

Aphrodite stood in the middle of the clearing, smiling sweetly at him.

The goddess's features shifted continually, each set becoming more beautiful than the last. For a moment, he glimpsed Merope in her black hair and glass-green eyes. The next, his dead girlfriend Side as her eyes darkened into a piercing brown. Then, the goddess Eos as her hair lightened, her jaw rounded out, and her eyes turned a rosy shade of pink.

He went through quite a phase with the last one. There was quite a story too, not that he'd be inclined to tell it.

Then, to his utter horror, her hair started reddening into a _particular _shade of auburn and her eyes turned _just _gray enough to resemble-

_Run. Run away now. You might still have a chance-_

The goddess of love cleared her throat. He realized he'd been staring.

"My lady Aphrodite," he managed to force out. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

She giggled at him. "Just confirming that the rumors are true, my dear. Artemis _has _finally found a man."

That sent shivers down his spine. "Artemis-that is- we are-"

She giggled, "Oh dear. Nervous, are we?"

He forced his thoughts to stop dogpiling each other.

"We're just friends. Barely even that." There. Steady.

She squealed. "And still in denial too! Don't worry, _every_ good romance starts at this stage. You'd been happily together in no time!"

Orion wasn't sure that was true. For some disturbing reason, practically every romantic fling the mortals storytellers ever talked about seemed to start with kidnapping of some variety. Friendship seemed extremely optional.

Not that he'd ever say that to her face. He'd very much rather not start feeling sexual urges toward an aardvark, thank you very much.

"I thought she swore off romantic love," Orion said, trying to distract her. It seemed like it would be a sour point for her.

"I _know_," it seemed to have the intended effect. "I mean, who just swears off love like that? Love is for _everyone_, except, apparently, for those hopeless cases like Artemis, Hestia, and Athena. What's _up_ with them anyway? And out of these three, Artemis is the worst. Swearing an oath of eternal chastity is not enough for her, oh no. She had to make _other _girls swear it too. Snatching up _my _followers. Robbing people of opportunities to find love."

He thought about the girls in the camp. Laughing, joking, stuck in a perpetual state of childhood. "They seem happy enough to me."

"They don't know what they're _missing_," she corrected.

But that wasn't quite true, either. Orion thought about Agatha, the new recruit who fled her betrothal to a violent brute (word amongst the Hunters was that said man had now joined the rabbit population around the city), because the man offered her father the biggest dowry. How many girls _do_ find love, when their lives were never theirs to begin with? How many people are forced into relationships they never wanted?

"I think they prefer this life," he said. "They find it liberating."

The goddess shrugged, "Pfft. Liberation from love is not liberation. But I'm not here to talk about them." She smiled at him again. "I'm here to talk about you."

_...Well. Not talking about me was nice while it lasted._

"Me, Lady Aphrodite?"

"Don't think you can distract me like that," her smile turned teasing. "I'll be keeping an eye on you. I haven't seen an interesting tragic romance in _decades_!"

"_Tragic_?" his voice came out a bit squeakier than usual. "No, my lady, there's really no need-"

"You aren't even denying the romance part anymore," she noticed.

"That...was going to be my next sentence."

She huffed. "Tell me, Orion...since you arrived, has Artemis been spending more time with the Hunters?"

He froze. "That...doesn't mean anything. It's natural, as the first male to join the Hunt-"

She giggled, as if to say _You're so cute_. "Just keep telling yourself that, dear-"

The ground tremored. Then it tremored again.

"Oops," she looked into the woods, presumably the source of the vibrations. "I think that's my cue to leave. See you around, Orion!"

She disappeared in a flutter of rose petals just as a furious Artemis came charging out of the undergrowth.

Artemis looked at the pile of rose petals where Aphrodite had been, then at him. Her silvery eyes bore into his mechanical ones, as if trying to read into his soul. For all he knew, she might have been.

Orion didn't dare break eye contact.

If she ever found out about what he saw in Aphrodite...

At last, her gaze pulled away. "Orion," she said. "There seems to be a rule amongst the Hunters you have yet to be privy to. 'When the love goddess comes, shoot her on sight.'"

Orion couldn't really disagree with that one.

* * *

**So...yeah. That was a bit heavy. **

**Regarding ace/aro people in ancient times, my interpretation is that Aphrodite, as a goddess of romantic and sexual love, would utterly fail to influence them, and that would frustrate her to no end. Apollo does mention somewhere in the **_Trials of Apollo_** that unlike what mortals think, gods can only influence feelings that already exist (which is probably a good thing, because the implications had it not been the case are...dark). So I'd imagine having an entire demographic of people whom she can't influence would rankle.**

**India. The Ancient Greeks thought it was the edge of the world, hence why I chose the location. Fun Fact: Alexander the Great stopped at conquering India because one of his generals literally told him that if he went further, he'd fall off the world.**

**And yeah, I mentioned a few past loves Orion had in this chapter, as per a reviewer's suggestion. Those are taken from various sources regarding Orion (they're not very consistent, but Greek mythology never is). **

**Forced marriages...that's a loaded topic. Rick Riordan did have some discussion regarding Ancient Greek marriage customs in_ Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, _and we have Sam in the Magnus Chase series, who is part of an arranged marriage. These are NOT the same thing! Forced marriages aren't consensual between the two parties, and is a violation of human rights under the UN, while arranged marriages require the consent of both parties. And sure, there are people who'd argue that consent under pressure from families is not consent, but um. You know. While I have done some research regarding this topic while writing this fic, I'm not well informed enough to get into the nuances. Like I said, loaded topic.**

**And I think that's all the notes I have for now.**

**I'll see you hopefully soon.**


	12. 2nd Guesses: BuildUp

**Hello! I'm back.**

**This is the next chapter. **

**Warnings: Um...can't think of anything. It's somewhat heavy on the feels in the end?**

* * *

Concern.

Artemis eyed the giant, who looked rather shell-shocked by the turn of events. She considered gleaning his surface thoughts, but decided against such a breach of privacy. He _was_ a Hunter now, after all, and if no one else, she trusted her Hunters.

Orion doesn't seem to have welcomed Aphrodite's company, at any rate.

After doing a thorough once-over to ensure that Aphrodite hadn't afflicted him with any love magic, she let him get back to camp with instructions to shoot the goddess should she show up without invitation again. Orion seemed all too happy to obey.

Orion was a good shot. He wouldn't miss.

That'll teach her to mess with one of her own again.

* * *

Orion was avoiding her.

It took awhile for her to catch on, considering that he didn't like to draw attention to himself in the first place. But after going two weeks of only seeing his retreating form, she started to suspect that something was wrong.

* * *

It didn't take much longer for her new lieutenant to raise the issue.

"My lady," said Zoe, "This is presumptuous of me to bring up…"

"Yes?" she inquired. She was still new the job, still unsure of how to approach her. It was going to be a sensitive topic, then.

"It's about Orion."

Of course it was. Out of all the Hunters, Zoe wasn't the most outspoken in her dislike of the giant, but she was indisputably the most protective of the Hunt and its members. Artemis hadn't made her lieutenant for nothing, after all. It wasn't surprising that acute observation skills came as a side effect of that protectiveness.

Artemis found herself touched by her devotion. It was really a shame that she had never seen _Orion _as one of the Hunters. Artemis knew Zoe well enough to know that she would only talk to _her _and not Orion if she believed that _Orion_ was the threat.

"Go on," she prompted.

"He seemed to be avoiding thee as of late."

"Yes, I've noticed."

"Thou dost not think that is cause for concern?"

"Oh, I do believe it is cause for concern," she reassured her. She wasn't an idiot, after all. "Aphrodite seemed to have left a mark on him."

Zoe stiffened at the mention of the love goddess. "What did she do?"

"Physically? Nothing, I think. But you know that there are subtler ways of...ah, _influencing _people."

Zoe grimaced, "What art thou going to do?"

"Aside from using her for target practice the next time we meet? Have a discussion with Orion, for starters. Remind him of his oath, that sort of thing."

Her lieutenant hesitated. "Is that..._safe_, my lady?"

_What if he turned out to be like every other man who targeted the Hunt? What if Aphrodite's _influence _was enough to make him target _thee_?_

Ah, so new to the whole Lieutenant position, and she had already mastered the art of the Unspoken Double Meaning.

"Why wouldn't it be safe?" _Then I will defend myself. That, at least, is within my abilities, even if doing the same for the Hunt doesn't seem to be._

"No reason at all, my lady." _Those incidents are not thy fault._ Callisto_ was not thy fault. Thou dost not need to prove anything. We are still devoted to thee as ever. _

"Oh?" _Is that the general consensus, or is it just you?_

"I do believe that it is the duty of thy lieutenant to build rapport, however." _We're all still here, aren't we?_

"Oh. Very well, then. I will leave the speaking to you." _Thank you, Zoe._

Zoe nodded respectfully, before going on her way.

_Yep_, Artemis thought. _She'll go far_.

Zoe would never be Callisto, but perhaps Artemis didn't want a replacement.

The next Lieutenant would have a lot to live up to. Hopefully the day she had to choose a new one wouldn't come any time soon.

* * *

**Yeah, I know, this chapter is a bit filler-y, and short, but hey, that's because it's the build up to the next chapter! (As the name implies). Hopefully I did okay with the Zoe and Artemis dynamic. I thought they were awesome in _The_** _**Titan's Curse**_**. I do hope I did their chemistry justice.** **Zoe is still new to the whole lieutenant business as of right now. Artemis was still not over what happened to Callisto, and her role in turning her into a bear. I'd imagine that she had issues coming to terms with the whole thing. **

**It's my head-canon that Callisto was lieutenant before the whole Zeus thing happened. She was Artemis's best friend. I assumed that was the reason. Or maybe her friendship was what made her lieutenant. Whichever one came first.**


	13. 2nd Guesses: Trust

**I'm baack.**

**I have been hit with inspiration in the form of boredom, caffeine, and a great desire to put off doing actual work, so I'm updating again. So soon after the last chapter.**

**Last chapter was filler, any way. Way too short. I realized that in writing the previous chapter that it was getting way too long, so I had to cut it in half. **

**Obviously unevenly. **

**So hopefully this makes up for it.**

**Warnings for this chapter: Um, more serious tonally than previous chapters, I guess. **

**Enjoy! Leave a review, if at all possible. I love reviews.**

* * *

Peaceful.

It was a shame the stars wouldn't have her undivided attention tonight.

Zoe assigned Orion to keep watch. Then she waited until everyone else was asleep before crawling out of her tent. An olive branch in the form of privacy. She got the impression that he would withdraw from her as well if she had tried to talk to him in front of others, and then where would she be?

Orion eyed her as she took a seat next to him, surprised, but not quite ready to run yet. A good sign. "Can I help you?"

"Perhaps thou can," she leaned back against a rock, directing her gaze upwards. The stars were out. The trees were conveniently parted in the clearing they had set up camp in, and the night was clear. It was, in her opinion, a beautiful night.

Stars were soothing. They reminded her that she had gained something since her banishment, that it wasn't all loss and betrayal. There was no night in the garden, after all. Just a constant oscillation between civil twilight and nautical twilight and astronomical twilight. Nothing but the brightest of stars had been visible in the garden. She supposed it was beautiful, but there was only so much dusk one could admire before it became boring. At least outside, the skies change. The days followed the path of a wheel and not a pendulum.

It sounded like symbolism for something she couldn't quite figure out. No matter, poetry wasn't her forte, anyway.

"Um," Orion's voice interrupted her musings. "Are you stargazing?"

Right. She had a job to do.

"Yes," all conversations have to begin somewhere. This is as good an opening as any. "Dost thou?"

"Sometimes," he admitted. He sounded cautious, like he was expecting a trap, and it occurred to her that this was the first conversation she's had with the giant after the initial round of questions died down. An actual conversation, not curt commands or one word responses.

Perhaps they had been a bit too hard on him.

"I didn't mean to make thee feel unwelcome," she started. He blinked, the apertures of his mechanical eyes shuttering open and closed. It was as close to an apology as she was willing to give.

"Thou must understand, most of our encounters with men are not pleasant. I'm sure thou art familiar with some of the stories, so I shall spare thee the details. The point is, it is difficult for Hunters to interact with men, much less trust one."

"You're talking to me right now," he pointed out.

"It is a struggle, I assure thee."

He cracked a smile. Then he turned serious. "Artemis sent you to talk to me, didn't she?"

"Not at all. I sent myself."

"Any particular reason why? I assume this isn't a social call."

"Thou would be correct. My lady has informed me of a visit by a certain love goddess, who shall go unnamed."

Orion froze. "Ah."

"Thou hast been avoiding the goddess for weeks," she plowed on. "It is starting to become a concern."

His face twisted in grimace. "She might have mentioned that she was invested in having Artemis and I...pursue a relationship expressly forbidden in our oaths."

A surge of fury shot through her. How _dare _she. Wasn't it bad enough that that meddling, hypocrite of a goddess was taking away her sisters? Now she wanted to take away her goddess as well?

She knew that Artemis was immune to love magic, but Orion...

She'd had to trust in her goddess's judgement.

"I see," she managed to say after getting her temper under control. "The goddess trusts thee, and I trust her, so I shall give thee the benefit of the doubt."

"...Thank you."

"But I'm sure I do not need to remind thee of thy oath, and the life thou now lead."

"Of course."

"Good," she nodded. She went back to stargazing, deeming her duty fulfilled.

"Zoe?" Orion apparently deemed it otherwise.

"Yes?"

"Excuse the abrupt question, but what was your life like? Before Artemis, I mean."

She stiffened. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you seemed to know about me. I think it's only fair to know something about you," he turned sheepish. "Never mind."

She let the silence drag on a bit.

"I was a nymph," she allowed. "I was exiled after I aided a hero, who forgot me the moment his quest was over."

"Ah," he seemed surprised that she actually answered. "Heracles?"

She jerked in surprise, "How did you-"

"Lucky guess." Fair. The man allegedly fought basically every monster in Greece, after all. She wondered how many of his victories were actually his. "I would have met him in battle, you know, if I hadn't decided to desert."

She didn't want to talk about _him_, especially to another male. She changed the topic. "And what had made thee decide that?"

He shrugged. "I was born to oppose the Archer twins, one of whom was the god of prophecy and the other rejected her destiny to become a Huntress. I suppose my resulting personality was made to reject whatever destiny I was given." His voice went quiet. "I keep expecting my mother to open a crevice under my feet and cast me into the abyss. She did that to my brother, Damesen, just for avenging a mortal. I'm actively consorting with the enemy."

"Perhaps she is too deeply asleep now to do anything."

Orion didn't look convinced. "Perhaps." He shook his head, "I really don't know why I'm telling you this. I don't know if I should be."

"I have been informed that building rapport is integral to teamwork," she offered a smile. A peace offering. "Thou art doing fine."

And if the tension present in the camp lessened just a bit the following day, well, no one really likes tension anyway.

* * *

**Yep. I have been rereading what I wrote, and have come to the conclusion that the Hunters really wouldn't warm up to Orion that quickly. Thus, a chapter in which Orion starts to fit in just a little more. You'll notice that the tone is a bit more serious than previous chapters, but I suppose it makes sense from what we've seen of Zoe's personality. Hopefully it wasn't too jarring.**

**So yeah. Stay tuned, leave a review, etc, etc.**


	14. 2nd Guesses: The Other Archer Twin

**Hello.**

**How are you today?**

**So in researching this for this chapter, I found out that Artemis and Apollo's birthdays, the day the Thargelia is held, is approximately May 24th and 25th. **

**So I missed a perfect opportunity. Oops.**

**In this chapter, Apollo enters the chat.**

**As always, please leave a review. They do make me feel happy. And appreciated. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Confusion.

Apollo had appeared on Delos in a flash of light, dressed up in the latest fashions from Mount Olympus, ready to kick off his birthday celebrations. "Yo, the awesomer twin has arrived! Let the feast begin!"

Then he noticed that someone was conspicuously absent.

Apollo frowned at his mother. "Where's little sis?"

"Artemis said that she was running late," Leto said, sipping at her nectar.

"On her _birthday?_" Such a concept did not bear imagining for him.

"She said that something came up in the Hunt."

Interesting. Artemis had always been the more punctual of the two. Apollo personally preferred being fashionably late.

Speaking of which, Artemis seemed to be showing up to things late a lot recently. Apollo remembered the time he and Hermes set up a prank involving tadpoles outside one of her temples in Kalydon during Harvest time, and by the time she showed, they had all turned into frogs and hopped away. Hermes was _sooo_ disappointed.

Which was weird, because he knew that Artemis had a certain fondness for that particular festival, considering that the last time the Kalydonians forgot about her, she had sicced a death pig on them.

Or the time of the Winter Solstice. She had come in an hour late grumbling something about respecting other people's life decisions and glaring daggers at Aphrodite. Even Zeus had been too scared to reprimand her for her tardiness.

Come to think of it, he hadn't visited the Hunt in...what was it, two years now? Perhaps it was high time he showed.

"I'll be back," he told his mother, before disappearing in a flash of light.

He grinned to himself. His baby sister was always happy when he showed up to her Hunt. It was going to be fun!

* * *

Artemis did not look happy when he showed up in a flash of golden light.

"Come to kidnap another girl?" she asked acerbically.

Ouch. Apollo abruptly remembered _why_ he had been staying clear of her Hunt for the past two years.

"But little sister-"

"Do _not _call me that!"

"I was just getting worried because you've been so distant lately-"

"Have you considered that it might be because I want to be left alone?"

"-But today's our birthday! You can't spend your birthday without the rest of the family! The mortals sacrificed fruit for us and everything! You have to come!"

"Oh," she paused, like she _forgot_.

"Sis," Apollo was suddenly worried, "What's going on?"

Her expression morphed into something that could only be described as defensive. "Swear that you won't try to kill him."

"_Him_? Ooh, Artemis-"

Artemis made a growl in the back of her throat, like a bear ready to strike. "Swear it, or get out, Apollo."

"Fine," he nodded, because he was a good big brother. "I swear."

Artemis relaxed minutely. "Come on, then."

* * *

"Artemis," he said, feeling a sudden need to be discrete, "It's a man."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I've noticed."

"A _hot_ man."

Artemis paused, as if it hadn't occurred to her. "If you say so."

"And he's a _giant_."

Said giant looked between the twins, as if watching a very intense game of shuttlecock. Both gods ignored him.

"Problem, brother dear?"

"Aren't we supposed to be killing giants?"

"Well, he seemed to be behaving himself thus far. I have yet a reason to."

"And what is he doing here?"

"He's part of my Hunt now. I made him take the oath and everything."

"...Why?"

"I have my reasons, none of which you need to concern yourself with."

"So you're not worried about breaking your own oath?"

"For Father's sake, Apollo, you do realize that it's entirely possible for two people to be friends without being romantically attached."

"Friends. Sure." Apollo nodded, letting a grin stretch his features, despite his unease. "Is that why you've been spending more time with the Hunt than anything else lately?"

Artemis's silver eyes narrowed, "I'm sure you did not mean to insinuate what I think you did."

Now, the thing about gods was that despite being immortal, they still had what mortals would call self-preservation instincts. After all, grievous bodily injury and other forms of damage was not limited to mortals.

Apollo's self preservation instincts were not particularly well honed, but Artemis, being the goddess of wild animals, had the effect of amplifying the self preservation instincts of everyone around her. The effect was especially prominent on whoever held Artemis's attention at the time. It was even more prominent when she was angry.

Apollo had the misfortune of being both the object of her attention and the target of her anger. Cold sweat started appearing on his brow.

"Of course not," he reassured with a winning smile. "I'm sure you knew what you are doing. Shall we get started with Thargelia?"

A tense moment. For a moment, Apollo wondered if she'd call him out.

Then Artemis nodded, obviously having declared the matter of Orion dropped. She made to leave the tent, and Apollo followed him. Orion said his goodbyes, visibly relieved that they weren't talking about him anymore, and turned back to his duties.

They both missed the look of distrust Apollo threw over his shoulder.

* * *

**And that, my friends, is what they call foreshadowing. **

**So fun fact: I actually wrote the first part of the chapter before I wrote my previous two chapters, which is why it feels so tonally different, and more in line with the earlier chapters. At least, the difference was pretty glaring when I'm writing it. I don't know, do you notice a large difference? If you do, which one do you prefer? Or should I alternate between them? **

**Trying to balance humor and drama is hard, guys. I should give those people who can manage both at the same time more credit.**

**Thanks for the reviews and encouragement!**

**Also thanks for reading. Do leave a review, if possible. **

**Until next time!**


	15. 2nd Guesses: A Conversation with Wisdom

**Sup.**

**I'm back.**

**Thanks for the reviews and encouragement. They mean a lot to me. And please, keep them coming.**

**So it has come to my attention that I might accidentally have laid on the shipping vibes a bit too thick, and people are starting to get the wrong idea. **

**So. Oops. **

**I guess I should take this moment to say that my plans have not changed, and there will still be no shipping. Aphrodite and Apollo, both very much not asexual or aromantic, simply have some allonormative expectations in mind. I can't really use the term "heteronormative" here, considering that Apollo's canonically not very hetero, so "allonormative" is going to have to do.**

**Also, Orion is not aro or ace canonically, and Phoebe did mention him developing feelings in _The Blood of Olympus_, so I do plan on having him fall in love with her. It's not reciprocated, but still. I guess I should have mentioned that before. Oops.**

**So yeah. **

**There is discussion of asexuality and aromanticism in this chapter. I do believe this keeps in the spirit of Pride month.**

**Speaking of which, happy Pride month! I feel like I'm a bit late.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Annoyance.

This really was getting out of hand.

First Aphrodite, then Apollo. Was the concept of friendship without the romantic bits such a difficult thing to grasp?

Artemis scowled at the ground like it did her a personal wrong. She and Apollo were in Athens, celebrating their birthdays. Artemis didn't particularly like Athens, despite it being under the patronage of her favorite half-sister. Athena might have been prepared to tolerate the notoriously blatant lack of respect towards women because of Athens's status as a center of culture and academia **[1]**, but Artemis was not. But the food was good and the general atmosphere was rather cheerful, so she would let it go for one day. There weren't even human sacrifices to ruin her appetite anymore, after she and Apollo sent a clear message that sacrificing ugly men to them on their birthdays wasn't welcome or appreciated **[2]**.

Seriously, what were they going to do with the dead bodies, anyway? Mortals come up with the strangest things sometimes.

Apollo suddenly grinned. "Sweet, they're playing music."

He turned to her, "Time to dazzle them with my amazing skills. I'll be at the amphitheater." Just like that, he was off, leaving her to her own devices.

That attention hog. She wondered how he could stand having attention on him at all times.

Artemis bought a loaf of fresh white bread. She had disguised herself as a mortal maiden. Lower class, because upper class women had comparatively less freedom, to say the least **[3]**. The vendor gave her a strange look, clearly not expecting a woman of lower class to buy white bread **[4]**. A look that she cheerfully ignored in favor of stuffing her face.

Yes, food did always put her in a good mood.

"Artemis," a woman's voice interrupted her thoughts. She startled, turning around.

"Athena," she greeted, "Fancy seeing you here."

The goddess nodded, "Happy birthday."

"Thank you. Might I interest you in some bread? I can see why Thearion is famous **[5]**. This stuff is _good_."

"Thank you."

Artemis ripped off a large chunk, handing it to her.

"So what brings you here?" she asked. "Your presence is welcome, of course. I'm simply surprised. You aren't in the habit of attending festivals for other gods."

"I've heard rumors," Athena dropped her voice. "Concerning a certain member of your Hunt."

"You mean Orion," Artemis's irritation flared up again. Honestly, she let one male join her Hunt, and she never heard the end of it. "How many people know?"

Athena shrugged. "There is no confirmation as of yet. Rumors, on the other hand, are widespread."

Artemis resisted the urge to groan. "And now you know it's true."

Athena nodded. "There's something else. There was talk of you..._falling_ for him."

"...Of course there is." Heavens above, she was going to _kill _Aphrodite.

Or at least make her wish she was dead.

"And is it true? I am asking as a friend and confidant. You know that there would be no judgement from me."

"Of course." Artemis took her time chewing her next bite of bread, thinking.

It had taken a while, but she had certainly come to like Orion. The giant was good at conversation, after he got over his initial terror. He told good stories. She enjoyed his company. She had come to care for him.

Was that romantic attraction? Or even sexual attraction? She didn't know. She had never experienced them before. At any rate, she had never experienced anything that she _realized_ was romantic or sexual love. It was all very confusing.

The truth was, Artemis had always viewed romantic and sexual attraction rather...clinically. She knew they existed. She knew that they happened to most people. She could observe their effects on people (she only needed to look as far as Apollo) as they turned from perfectly rational beings into drooling puddles of goo. Sometimes, it even happened to one of her Hunters, and she knew that once it happened, there wasn't much to be done about it.

She had never _felt _it, though. It wasn't a matter of finding the right person, though for a long time she thought it was, and she had spent several centuries dreading the day it would come. It wasn't that she valued her freedom too much to give in to such feelings, though she absolutely did value her freedom and would fight whoever was stupid enough to think that they could take it from her.

When she was younger, she had assumed that it had to do with discipline: she never felt anything because she chose not to. She held everyone to the same expectation. She had hurt a lot of her own Hunters that way. A certain Polyphonte **[6] **came to mind.

She had made mistakes. She wished she could undo them.

Of course, she made sure to say absolutely none of that out loud.

"I need some sort of benchmark," she decided. "It would not suffice for me to simply say if I am in love, if I have no idea what it feels like."

"And how do we establish that?"

"I don't know. I was hoping that you would. You have children. May I assume that you have experienced romantic love before?"

"You may. Though I have been informed that it feels different for everyone."

"Ah. Well, that complicates matters. But we're _not_ going to Aphrodite for advice. She is smug enough as it is."

"Even if she could help?"

"I _do_ have a reputation to upkeep, you know."

"...Very well."

"Is it safe to assume, though, since I have yet to be struck with any desire to break my vows, that I have, indeed, not fallen for Orion?"

"...I suppose this is going to be as accurate of a benchmark as it gets."

"Very well then. You know my answer."

Athena nodded. "Thank you for the bread. Now I should be going. Things to do."

"Must you? It's only the first day of the festival. I'm sure we can find something entertaining to do around here. Sibling bonding experience and all that. And it's _your _city."

"I suppose I would not be entirely averse to this. What do you propose?"

"...I don't know. I haven't thought that far. More bread?"

* * *

**So here's Athena. So, considering that Athena canonically has children, but is a virgin goddess, I have a headcanon that she's ace but not aro.**

**So I feel like this chapter require a bit of an explanation. I did some research, but obviously, I'm not a historian. Feel free to leave constructive criticism in the reviews.**

**[1] I have mentioned this before. Athens was notorious for their lack of women's rights, at a time where women's rights were already bad. That being said, it is a cultural and academic center.**

**[2] Thargelia: Festival celebrated by Athens and Ionian Greece on May 24-25, named after the first fruits, or first bread from the new wheat. The festival lasts two days. On the first day, the two ugliest men in the city were selected as scapegoats and sacrificed to the gods via either stoning, burning, or drowning. Now, while there is precedence for gods demanding mortals to be sacrificed (see Agamemnon and Iphigenia), Iphigenia did get mentioned by name in _The Dark Prophecy_, so I have reason to believe that Artemis doesn't actually want human sacrifice. So she and Apollo would have probably put a stop to it.**

**[3] Upper class Athenian women weren't supposed to leave the house or interact with men outside the household. Of course, if you're lower class, this is utterly impractical.**

**[4] White bread is made from wheat flour rather than whole grain, and the Ancient Greeks considered white bread to be of higher quality than whole grain. Now, the Ancient Greeks did gave offerings of bread to the gods, called _artos theogonos_, but Artemis just wanted to enjoy herself for a day.**

**[5] Thearion: Best baker in Athens. And possibly all of Ancient Greece. Actually legendary. His name appears in various works of Ancient Greek literature.**

**[6] Polyphonte: A former hunter. Aphrodite ordered her to marry, she went to Artemis for help. Artemis took her in as a Hunter. Aphrodite, now incredibly salty, made her fall in love with a bear. Artemis found about it, and abandoned her in disgust. Kind of a What the Hell, Hero moment. Her sons, Agrius and Oreius, appeared in the _Sea of Monsters_ on the Princess Andromeda.**

**So I think that's it for the author's notes. Thanks for reading. Once again, reviews are appreciated. And helps the author work up the motivation to write more. So that's that.**

**Until next time.**


	16. 2nd Guesses: The Problem

**Hey guys, I'm back!**

**Thank you for the reviews. I've seen them over the past few chapters. **

**This has been built up over several chapters, but I'll address the guest reviews in chronological order here, starting from the ones in May, when I started updating again, since I can't message them directly:**

**Guest: Thank you. As you can see, I have been progressively making the chapters longer. Or trying to, anyway. And both the title and the "Oh snap" in the first chapter was completely unintentional. I'm glad you're enjoying my story, though!**

**Guest: I'm not actually sure if you're the same person as the one above. Nonetheless, thank you for the encouragement. I'm glad you didn't actually notice the difference in tone. Maybe I'm over-analyzing my own work. Haha.**

**Enjoy the story, and keep the reviews coming, please. Remember, Reviews=happiness=motivation=faster updates!**

* * *

Overthinking.

Orion was definitely overthinking.

It took a while, with him hanging onto his denial with every ounce of his willpower, but he could safely say that he most definitely had fallen in love with Artemis.

Well, not safely. He was fairly sure his chances of his head being taken off with an arrow following that revelation had just become astronomically higher.

He blamed Aphrodite.

Now, the question was, did Artemis love him back? From what both Aphrodite and Apollo had said, Artemis had been spending more time with the Hunters since he joined. He was also the only male whom she had ever invited to join her Hunt. Surely that meant something?

Perhaps Artemis was simply waiting for him to make a move.

Orion calculated his chances. If she didn't harbor feelings for him, surely if he had just confessed his love for her and made no attempt to coerce her into anything, there was a chance he'd be left alive? He calculated a 30 percent chance of survival.

And if she did harbor feelings for him, either she'd agree to break her vows, or she'd try to kill him to eliminate the possibility. He felt that could go either way. 50 percent then.

So what are the chances of Artemis actually being in love with him? She was good friends with him by now. He got the feeling that he was the closest relationship she had with any male. Perhaps that counted for something?

Or maybe not. Either way, his chances aren't good.

He felt like a mortal teenager.

* * *

"Aw, the pining is so simply _adorable_," a voice said behind him.

Orion didn't hesitate. He fired an arrow in the direction of the voice.

"So testy, dear. It really does not look attractive on you," Aphrodite sniffed, examining her fingernails, though Orion caught her eyeing the arrow shaft where it had planted itself on a tree trunk half an inch from her head warily. "I see that you've moved past your denial."

"Take it back," he snarled. "I did _not_ ask to fall in love with Artemis."

"What makes you think _I_ did anything?"

"Oh, I can think of a few anecdotes," he growled.

"Oh, _please_. I only use my love magic when I'm annoyed, or if someone prays to me for it. It's so much more beautiful when two people fall in love _naturally_, without my help," she squealed suddenly. "I've been watching you, you know. So cute!"

"What, so you're saying that you've got nothing to do with this?"

"Honey, do you think Artemis would let you back to camp if I've enchanted you somehow? She can sense my magic, you know. Antitheses, and all that. I'm sure you of all people understand. So no, sweetheart. I have not enchanted you in any way."

"_Right._ And are you going to say that Artemis is also in love with me next?"

"Oh, that I have no idea. Like I said before, she's one of the hopeless cases I have no control over. I can't sense her romantic inclinations like I can sense everyone else's. Regular, surface emotions, yes. Deeper emotions, like love or hatred? I've been...locked out from it. The best I can do is to make educated guesses. It's rather annoying. If you ask me, Artemis needs someone to love in her life."

"And it just happens that you decided that I'm the sacrificial lamb you want to make that happen." Despite that, Orion felt a surge of hope. Perhaps, if he had a blessing from the love goddess herself…

"Oh, don't put yourself down like that," she smiled prettily at him. "If it makes you feel better, your chances aren't zero. While I can't sense if she loves you, I can say from her interactions that she at least likes you. You should just ask her, you know? What's the worst that can happen?"

"She puts an arrow through my head?"

"Oh, don't be such a downer! She only does that to people she doesn't like. And you've said it yourself that you're friends."

"Even so, I can't just presume-"

"I've seen young couples do it all the time! Waiting for each other to confess their love, it's so cute! Frustrating at times, but adorable all the same. Neither of us knows how Artemis feels about this, so why don't you take a chance?"

"W-well, she _did_ ask me to join the Hunt first," he murmured thoughtfully.

"And?"

"And both you and Apollo said that she's been spending more time with the Hunt since I've joined."

"Go on."

"And...she likes spending time with me."

She nodded enthusiastically. "That's the spirit! You have a chance! A good one, even!"

"Alright," he said reluctantly. "I'll ask her."

"I'm so proud of you," she wiped away a tear. "I'll even give you my blessing and everything. Now I must depart. I've got parties to attend."

He watched her depart with a heavy sense of deja vu as she dissolved into a pile of rose petals.

Orion was suddenly, very, very glad that Artemis was not anywhere near this time.

* * *

Apollo watched the exchange, hidden from both of them, hand tight on his bow.

The giant was becoming a problem.

He had been prepared to tolerate him, for Artemis. Maybe given enough time, he'd even grow to like him.

But this was crossing the line.

How dare this..._abomination_ try to take his baby sister away? That monster was going to woo her, and she would change before his eyes as she grew more and more distant from him and closer and closer to _him_. Before long, she would disappear from his life.

She was going to break her vows, and he will lose his sister.

It was already happening.

He nocked an arrow and aimed. Better to take down the threat before it causes any damage.

But _no_.

If he eliminated him now, Artemis would still be attached to him. Gods knew how he was like after Daphne and Hyacinth.

He would break his little sister's heart.

He needed to make Artemis see that Orion was a monster. She needed to sever her attachments to him first.

Yes.

He lowered his bow and began to plot.

* * *

**And that, my friends, is the beginning of the end.**

**And damn, Apollo is _dark_. I know I'm the one writing him, but still. I was writing the plot with an endpoint in mind, considering this story's foregone conclusion. And as I'm trying to work out Apollo's thought processes and motivations as the plot progresses, I was like, "Goddamn, we definitely underestimated this guy."**

**So what I'm trying to say here is Good is Not Nice.**

**Until next time! **

**And please give more reviews. I feel repetitive saying this, but reviews give me life. **


	17. 2nd Guesses:The Confession

**Hey guys.**

**This chapter took a bit longer to write, but in my defense, I _suck_ at writing romance and romantic confessions. Also, I've recently read a fanfic that traumatized me so badly it threw off all my characterizations and tone. It took me like a week to recover from the BSoD.**

**So, sorry.**

**Also, while I have a vague outline and a general idea of where the plot is going, the bits in between are just me desperately making up details to fill in the narrative gaps. This happened to be one heck of a gap. It's one thing to have a premise and a conclusion and it's another thing have any goddamned idea how to get there. **

**But yeah.**

**Enjoy the story, and do leave a review for me. It would be much appreciated.**

* * *

Content.

Artemis and her Hunters had just taken down their latest prey (no hero has taken down the Clazmonian Sow yet **[1]**, so naturally, it was up to them), so they were in a celebratory mood. They had taken the pelt and on top of that, they had found themselves with an excess of pork for food.

Artemis had always believed in using what one hunted. Much more efficient use of resources that way. It wasn't like the pig was using it anymore.

Orion was getting excellent at cooking.

At some point, a food fight had broken out amongst the Hunters. Their only male member had been somewhat miffed about them throwing around food that he cooked (he had started to take pride in his culinary skills), but after getting pelted from behind with a rather large piece of pork belly, he had taken it as a personal insult and joined with more vigor than the rest of them combined. Within minutes, a large majority of the Hunters had gone down with food clinging to their faces.

Artemis, the only one spared from the carnage, took in the scene unfolding before her and laughed.

Orion glanced over. "Was the food not to your satisfaction, my lady?"

It was an invitation to banter **[2]**.

"Not at all," she felt herself beginning to smile. "Impeccable aiming skills, Orion. I had no idea you were so well versed in the art of food throwing."

It wasn't a well known fact, but Artemis liked to banter. Banter was, by definition, good humored teasing, and since an excellent assessment of how close one's friends were was how much one can insult them without them taking offense, very few people dared to do it with her, an admittedly anger-prone Olympian goddess.

Callisto had bantered with her, back when she was one of her Hunters. She hadn't been Artemis's best friend for nothing, after all, but she wasn't exactly available anymore. Zeus had seen to that.

Apollo, as her twin, had engaged in banter when they were younger. But since then, they had grown further apart. The banter had grown less good natured and more barbed.

Zoe might come around eventually, but she was still new to the position and hadn't quite found her place.

So it said a lot that Orion, the sole male member of her Hunt, a giant, her supposed worst enemy, had felt comfortable enough to engage in banter with her.

They had come a long way.

Banter was a sign of ultimate companionship and trust, especially between a god and someone more prone to dying, since it relied on the god not getting offended enough to blast the other party to bits. She felt gratified that she had found such a companion in Orion.

So naturally, it didn't last.

* * *

"My lady," Orion said later that week. "May I have a moment of your time?"

_Privately_, she heard the implication.

"Very well," she acquiesced. He followed her into her tent.

"My lady," he began. "There's been something I've been meaning to say."

He definitely looked nervous now.

"Right, here goes. For a while now, I've been looking differently at the world, and the things I want from it. It's not that I've suddenly been recruited to join a group of previously all-female Hunters, or that I've finally been accepted by them. Thought it might have been, but…" he waved his hands helplessly. "It's me who's not the same, since I've met you. Knowing you changed me."

"Have you?" She was starting to get a sneaking suspicion as to what that was about. He wasn't...leaving, was he?

A sense of unease started spreading in her gut.

"You've seen the best of me, but you haven't seen the worst. It wasn't too long ago that I was wandering around, desperately looking for a purpose in life," he gave a self-deprecating laugh. "I know what I want now, and...I'm trying to say that I'm in love with you. And if you would have me, I'll be yours." **[3]**

Oh.

_Oh_.

_Stupid_, she cursed herself. All that time, trying to prove that she wouldn't fall in love, and she had never even considered that perhaps, the other party might fall in love with _her_.

What had she done?

She looked up at his face, expression hopeful and earnest, almost like a newborn puppy. She liked puppies, and she hated disappointing people she cared about. For a terrible moment, she thought about saying yes, just to avoid the pain and hurt that would come with the rejection. It would certainly make Orion happy.

But she didn't think about him that way, and it was ultimately her that controlled her life, was it not? She couldn't make decisions like that based on how Orion would take it. She had to act according to what _she_ felt. **[4]**

"No," she kept her voice soft, as if to cushion the damage. It wouldn't work, she knew, but nonetheless, she tried.

Orion, as predicted, looked absolutely crushed. "No?"

"I cannot, Orion. I love you, as a friend. I really do, but...I don't love you romantically. I don't _do_ romantic love."

"Because of your vow, my lady?"

"The vow was to prevent myself from being forcibly married off. I've...how to explain? I've never been interested in those kinds of things. I've never liked boys, or girls, or anyone in between. The mere idea...well, it doesn't sit well with me. The vow is just a method to ensure that I have a reason to never engage in these things."

"So you've...really never felt love?"

"No. Romantic love is...not my department."

"I…see," Orion looked almost catatonic, and Artemis felt a rush of guilt for hurting her friend. "I...I have to go."

For a second, she wanted to ask him to come back, to apologize.

But she didn't really owe him her affection, did she?

She didn't try to stop him.

* * *

**I think we all know they're not going to end up together. I mean, I basically told you this from chapter 1. **

**But yeah, things will only go downhill from here.**

**Let's see...author's notes:**

**[1] Clazmonian Sow: Also known as the Flying Pig. It appeared in _T__he Last Olympian._ Annabeth mentioned that as far as she knew, no hero had ever beaten it. In other words, it seemed like the kind of job the Hunters of Artemis would be suited for. From what we've seen of the Hunters, they always seemed to be going after prey that were more dangerous than what normal demigods were suited for. In _The Titan's Curse_, they were going after the manticore, a monster that was too dangerous for Thalia, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover to fight. In _The Lost Hero_, they were going after Lycaon, a werewolf who's only vulnerable to silver. In the Trials of Apollo series, they were going after the Teumessian Fox, who was basically destined to never be caught. Basically, if anyone was going to kill the Clazmonion Sow, it would be the Hunters.**

**[2] As TV Tropes once said, "A very good measure of how good your friends are is how much you can insult them without them taking offense." I believe wholeheartedly in this statement.**

**[3] I may or may not have derived this bit from Kaidan 2's proposal. It's a Skyrim mod. It wasn't like I had much experience in writing confessions, so I had to take inspirations from somewhere. So if anyone spotted that, well done!**

**[4] Honestly, this was something I had to learn. I've watched dramas and stuff when I was younger and oblivious to the fact that I'm not straight, and I've noticed that whenever the dude in the romantic subplot does some grand gesture to win over the girl, the girl always acts amazed and touched, and then says yes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it had left my younger self with the conclusion that the girl only said yes because she felt like she owed him something after realizing the depth of his emotional investment. Which is very, _very_ problematic. **

**But yeah, I hope this portrayal is realistic. I haven't had much experience with this whole romance thing, and am not inclined to have any any time soon. So feedback is appreciated.**

**Do leave a review about it. Anything I could do better at, etc. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	18. 2nd Guesses: The Descent

**Hey guys!**

**I'm back.**

**Happy July! **

**In this chapter, we go back to Orion. We see what Apollo's up to these days, and Phoebe makes an appearance! Admit it, you forgot she existed.**

**So anyway, read, enjoy, leave a review, all that good stuff.**

**Ta!**

* * *

Well.

That went down like a lead balloon.

Orion had mentally prepared himself for a rejection, of course. But he had genuinely thought that he had a chance. Aphrodite herself was on his side for this one, after all. And all those tiny gestures. The verbal sparring. Had he been misreading all of that?

_I've never been interested in these things._

Well, he thought resentfully. At least she let him live.

He was quite deep into the forest now. Some part of him thought it might be wise to go back.

He ignored it.

A twig snapped behind him. He whirled around, relaxing when he saw that it was only a deer. He briefly contemplated killing it, before realizing that he had left his bow back at the campsite, because he had been planning to ask Artemis out, and one did not court someone carrying weapons.

Right.

It was probably for the best that he returned, then.

* * *

Mortals much, much, much later would look between Apollo and Dionysus and go "Ah, yes. A dichotomy between the rational and logical and the emotional and instinctual." Much, much, much later, Apollo would look down upon them from the sun chariot he had acquired from Helios and laugh.

To say that he represented the rational mind would be to say that Zeus represented law and order.

Oh wait…

The point was, Apollo _wasn't _rational. If he were rational, he would look at his current behavior and point out how irrational it was.

But he was, however, something of a party god. Something he did share with Dionysus, even if Dionysus's gatherings were a bit more bloody than what he would have liked. And now, because they were such good buddies, he was sure the other god would let him borrow one of his other powers.

Dionysus liked him. Apollo taught him everything he knew, after all.

* * *

Dionysus was a bit of an oddity amongst gods.

He had been born a demigod, and then became a god. While that wasn't unheard of, he had the bad luck to be the subject of a massive controversy as Hestia gave up her throne for him. As such, most of the gods had no idea what to make of him, and avoided him unless he threw one of his parties. Then they were too drunk to care.

He hadn't even wanted the stupid throne.

When mortals gazed upon him, they thought that he was a bit too...raw for an Olympian god. Too emotional. He supposed they had a point.

But he had grown up mortal.

It wasn't that the gods-the full fledged gods who had been born immortal- had less of a capacity for emotion. They just learned very early on that mortals' lives were just that: mortal. No matter how much they cared for one, kept them from harm, eventually they would die and they would be left empty handed again. Some gods like Artemis and Athena tried to get around that, either by making their favored ones immortal or choosing companions who had very, very long lifespans, but those tended to end in tragedy too. As such, the gods rarely put all their devotion into one being. It would only make the heartbreak so much worse.

And they were still in charge of making sure the world turned, after all. Fickle and petty they might be, but even they couldn't let their domains stop functioning because their emotional state had debilitated them.

But Dionysus hadn't been equipped to adopt that mindset. When he felt, he still felt with all the intensity of a mortal. It frightened the other gods. Such emotion had the potential to throw the world off balance, especially in the hands of one so powerful. Perhaps in a few centuries, he would become callous and unfeeling and cynical and disillusioned with godhood, but it still hadn't been that long ago that he was made immortal. He was still mortal at heart.

So he was somewhat surprised when Apollo appeared to him while he was leisurely sipping his wine in a cave in Nysa.

"Sup, Dionysus," the god flashed his blinding white teeth, and Dionysus barely resisted the urge to look away.

"Apollo," he said. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Apollo's grin got even wider, if possible, "Cast your mind back. Hyperborea, ten years ago."

_Hyperborea? What did that had to do with-oh._

The crisp autumn afternoon was interrupted by a slew of curses by an intoxicated wine god.

* * *

Orion's dark mood did not lift.

He took measures to avoid the goddess of hunting whenever he could. He left the group for solo Hunting trips more and more often. His kills, once a practicality of life, became more aggressive in method.

One day, when he was cleaning up after cooking, a shadow came over him.

"Alright," Phoebe's voice sounded irritated. "What in Hades has been going on with you?"

Phoebe, unlike Zoe, _had_ been outspoken against Artemis's decision to let him join the Hunters. She had, however, come around since then. The two of them had become some sort of vitriolic friends. He found her brashness refreshing. She found his smooth sarcasm a point of entertainment.

It was great.

"I don't believe Hades had anything to do with this," Orion said, just to be difficult.

"So you do admit there's something going on with you, then?" She smirked. Point to Phoebe.

"Perhaps," he allowed. "Perhaps I have yet to forgive you for the pork belly you threw at my head, which I had so painstakingly cooked up for you."

"And nailing me in the stomach with a slab of raw meat wasn't retribution enough?"

"I'm allowed to take pride in my creation."

She huffed a short laugh. "Seriously, though. What's going on? You haven't been the same ever since you came out of Artemis's tent last...month." Her eyes widened. "You didn't."

He winced, "It didn't happen quite like that."

"Yeah?" She was a bit more wary now. "So how did it happen?"

"I..._might_ have had another encounter with Aphrodite, and she...persuaded me to...you know…"

Phoebe muttered something that would have made a sailor blush. "So what are you going to do now?"

"Well, she let me stay. I suppose I'll do that. It wouldn't happen again, if that's what you're worried about."

Phoebe nodded. "See to it that it doesn't."

"And, uh, if you would avoid mentioning that fiasco to anyone…"

"Fine," she huffed. She was about to say something else, but was interrupted by a shout. "Alright, gotta go. Agatha wants to learn how to make a bow."

She stood up and left, leaving Orion with his thoughts.

The conversation hadn't _quite _lifted him from his mood, but he felt a bit better.

* * *

**Well, I think that's the longest chapter I've written to date.**

**How many instances of foreshadowing can you spot? **

**Dionysus was surprisingly fun to write, though I might have put too much angst in there. This is almost turning into a character study. IDK, what do you guys think? Too much? Not enough? Just right?**

**Scholars have referred to this apparent dichotomy between Apollo and Dionysus as Apollonian and Dionysian, by the way, as I was forced to learn in high school. Basically, humans operate on a balancing act between controlling one's emotions and referring to rational thought (Apollonian) and letting emotions control them and acting based on impulses (Dionysian). Me being a big Greco-Roman mythology nerd back then, I took one look at the concept and went "Have you _met_ them?"**

**So yeah. I have a headcanon that Dionysus got to be the way he was in the books because he had cared _too much_ when he was younger, and that ended up burning him again and again. **

**Anyway, I hope you appreciated my attempt to diss Zeus. As for why Dionysus was introduced...well, remember how he had dominion over insanity? Yep.**

**For those who thought Orion's relationships with everyone had suddenly became much, much friendlier, I'll admit that I don't think I handled that very well. I'm handwaving it as a timeskip, but yeah. It needs work.**

**So I think that's it for now. Thanks for reading, and all that. Leave a review!**


	19. 2nd Guesses: Into Madness

**Hey guys. **

**Happy Fourth of July, everyone, if you celebrate it. Though I guess this year it isn't very celebratory, what with the..._world events_ going on.**

**On a similar note, what the heck is wrong with people? Fireworks have been going off in my neighborhood for like three hours. It's loud, it's disruptive. It sounds more like bombs than fireworks. You can't even see much of the light show. My ears are still ringing. I know this has been a crappy year, but this does _not_ mean they can compensate by trying to blow out everyone's eardrums!**

**Think of the dogs! Think of the people with PTSD. For that matter, think of people other than themselves.**

**Okay, rant over. **

**Back to the story.**

**Warnings: Character death. One use of the precision F-strike, and generally being very, very dark.**

**Enjoy and leave a review!**

* * *

Blurred.

On his last day on Earth, Orion wasn't in the clearest state of mind.

In hindsight, it had been difficult to spot which part was the insanity curse and which part was him. Then again, that was probably the whole point. If he had noticed that he was going mad, surely that would mean that he was sane enough to recognize insanity in himself.

No. The curse had crept up slowly.

He started out the day as he usually did those days, venturing into the forest until he was a few hours away from the Hunters' main camp, hunting lions, bears, monsters, whatever it was that posed the most danger to mortals.

By late morning, he had a trail of bodies left in his wake.

That wasn't a problem, per se. He was a Hunter: that was his _job_. But between the adrenaline rush, the insanity spell, and the sheer feeling of power _killing _things gave him, it became addicting.

He took it out on a deer next. The animal went down with a cry.

It was quick. It was easy. It was _fun_.

Why didn't he do this earlier?

He took down the baby deer next to it.

He had a brief flash of regret-a reaction he had gained from spending years with the Hunters, perhaps, or the last remnants of his own diminishing sanity-but that quickly dissolved as he took in the dying family. The look of _fear_ in their eyes. It wasn't too late to save them, he knew. Their survival completely depended on how _he _chose to act.

It sent a strangely exhilarating feeling down his spine, having that much control over someone else's life.

Normally, he would have been horrified. Distantly, he knew that. But why? Because he had rules that he was currently breaking? Because he was "good"? Because he had morals? Because he was going against things the Hunters stood for?

It was a way to control him! He laughed. Stupid, dense him. Too dull to question. Too dumb to see the truth. The rest of the Hunters are too stupid to see it like he had been.

Well, he knew better now.

He left the deer to suffer a slow, painful death.

His next target was a rabbit.

He watched as it drew its last breath. Stupid romantic inclinations. He wouldn't be used that way! He refused to be a point of entertainment.

After that, things blended together. Sometimes, it was a wombat, sometimes, it was a squirrel. Sometimes, he gave them a chance to flee just so he could hunt them down later.

They were all so very, very easy to take down. He was practically steamrolling them! Weak, pathetic animals. They're so much better targets than lions or snakes. All one had to do was aim! They didn't even _try_ to fight back. Seriously, they were practically _asking_ for it!

Years later, he would blame the entire incident on Apollo. It was certainly easier. But was it? He had seen mortals commit atrocities on each other in the name of whatever trivial thing they thought was the most worthy of attention. He had seen armies pillage cities. He had seen what they did to the civilians. In less than a decade, Helen of Sparta would be kidnapped by a Trojan prince. In less than a decade, war would break out. In less than fifty years the city of Troy would be sacked. Sons would be killed in front of their fathers. Then the fathers would be murdered themselves. Women would be taken and sold into slavery. Infants would be thrown off the city walls.

Could all that be chalked up to an insanity spell? It seemed awfully irresponsible.

And, he would later wonder in his deepest thoughts. If mortals could do that to their own species without one, could a giant be compelled to Hunt down all the forest critters in the world?

But in the end, he supposed that it didn't matter if it was the spell or him simply snapping that pushed him over the edge. It was probably a mixture of both. The massacre continued nonetheless.

He wasn't sure how long his rampage lasted. All he knew was that it ended abruptly.

One moment, he was taking aim at the next wombat in a long, long line. The next moment, he had the stinger of a scorpion pierced through his chest.

It broke through whatever state of mind he was in.

He gasped, trying to get his lungs to work. A horrible wheezing sound came out instead.

He managed to turn around, meeting the dark, beady eyes of the giant arachnid, stinger poised for another strike.

He grabbed at his wounded chest, waiting for the venom to run its course.

Why was his vision getting worse?

Why wasn't he healing?

_It's time you stopped your silly little rampage_, said a voice in his head.

Gaea.

His mother.

The Earth goddess hadn't forgotten him after all.

He fell to one knee.

_You know that a giant couldn't be killed by a god or demigod. Most people took that to mean that they could only be killed by both of them working together. _His mother's voice whispered in his ear. _That's the easiest way, yes. But it does not mean that. This will be our little secret._

It was getting increasingly hard to breathe.

_What was that lovely mortal expression? "I brought you into this world, I can take you right out?" Well, I hope you've seen enough of this world, my wayward son. You will not be seeing it for a while. _

"You," he managed to wheeze out. "F-"

_Was it worth it? Rejecting your destiny? Being rejected in turn by that goddess you're so infatuated with?_

"F-fuck you." Not the most eloquent insult he'd ever given, but he could be forgiven for that.

He fell backwards. Regrettably, it gave him an excellent view of the carcasses he had slaughtered.

Gaea acted like he hadn't spoken. _I'll let you think about that. I'm doing this for your own good, you know. Say hello to your father for me, will you?_

The next thing he knew, the scorpion lay dead on the ground, its stinger having been cut off and head having been decapitated.

The last thing he saw were the wide, horrified eyes of the goddess Artemis.

* * *

**Um, yeah.**

**Orion's dead, guys.**

**I have to say, I've never written someone going insane before. How did you think I handled it? For my part, I just thought of all the horrible things that's going on right now and let my thoughts lead the way.**

**It was surprisingly easy. Or maybe it was just my deteriorating mental state. That much time being quarantined with no one except your family couldn't be healthy.**

**Anyway, I tried my hand at symbolism and parallelism. Try to spot all the instances. **

**I mentioned Theseus kidnapping Helen when she was twelve. Since this was supposed to be pre-Trojan War and that had already happened, I figured that they'd have less than a decade before the Trojan War started.**

**So, we have one more chapter to go before the end of part two. The last chapter was probably just gonna tie everything up. I'm still debating whether I should write a part three. I'd probably do it, to be honest. I have ideas and everything. But it's all very open ended.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed. **

**Leave a review!**


	20. 2nd Guesses: The Fallout

**Hey guys!**

**So this is the last chapter of Part Two. I've got plans for part three, and don't worry: it will be a fun one, but plans aren't finalized yet. **

**So yeah. **

**Buckle up, children. This chapter is _heavy_.**

**Do leave a review for me, thank you, as you should know by now that I love reviews.**

**Thanks.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Numb.

Artemis had sensed a disturbance in the forest, what with all the wild animals in the area crying out for help. She had arrived as fast as she could, bow at the ready to deal out some serious divine retribution. Who would _dare_ deface her domain like this?

When she arrived, the rampage had already stopped. A giant scorpion was standing over the nearly-dead body of…

Without thinking, she took out her hunting knives, each wickedly sharp and as long as her arm. With two precise strikes, she decapitated the scorpion. It fell to the ground, dead.

She ran over to Orion.

The giant met her eyes, trying to convey an apology. Then the light faded from his eyes. Literally, as his eyes were mechanical.

_No..._she thought desperately. _There was no way that he…_

But denial and self-delusion were never her strong suit. Some of the dead animals still had arrows in them. Arrows from _Orion_'s quiver. And he _had_ been trying to apologize.

_Why?_

She turned to the forest. _Tell me what happened_, she commanded.

So they did. Orion's rampage. His madness. The arrival of the scorpion and the Earth goddess.

She took a deep breath, cupping her hand over his mouth. She could honor her friend, at least.

She said the required blessings and watched the silvery dust fly into the sky.

Orion the Constellation...yes, that does have a nice ring to it.

* * *

"It's done," Dionysus said. "Are you _sure_-"

"No problem," Apollo assured him, grinning cheerfully. "If my plan works out, Artemis wouldn't even be mad. Orion was dangerous. We would help her see that. It's for her own good!"

Dionysus frowned, "Don't you think that a decision like that should be up to her?"

"Nah," Apollo wrapped his arm around the wine god's shoulders. "You worry too much. Thanks for the help, bro."

With that, he practically skipped off. Perhaps he should compose a poem in celebration.

So when that night, a new constellation rose above the horizon, bearing the image of a man carrying a bow, Apollo scowled.

The giant still hadn't lost his sister's favor, then.

He trudged back to the site where Orion had fallen. Orion's body was gone: turned into a constellation by his sister. The scorpion, however, laid where it had died.

Apollo spoke the required blessings and watched the golden dust fly into the sky.

Scorpio took its place in the night sky. Always chasing Orion, so he would never have peace, even in the stars.

A risky move, to be sure. A petty one, too. But Apollo wasn't a rational god, was he?

* * *

Artemis watched the sky that night.

Usually, Zoe was the one who liked stargazing, but Artemis made an exception to honor her fallen friend. Orion rose up in the sky, bow still at the ready. She hoped he was content.

She blinked.

Is that-?

Another constellation had appeared. One that looked awfully like a certain arachnid she had seen earlier that day.

_No…_

There was only one way to make sure. She ran.

At the spot the scorpion had fallen, the body was gone. In its place was a slight shimmering of gold.

Apollo had been there.

_Why would Apollo-?_

Her eyes widened. The mistrust, the distance as of late...Apollo _had_ always deemed it his duty to "protect" her out of some misplaced sense of chivalry.

He wouldn't, would he?

_Then why would he put the scorpion in the sky to torment her friend?_

She gripped her bow tighter. She had a brother to hunt down.

* * *

Orion blinked his mechanical eyes open and immediately closed them again.

Tartarus.

The realm of his father.

And he was the disobedient son, trapped there with him.

Surely one could see why this situation was not ideal.

Even if his father was too asleep to be aware of his presence, his brethren wouldn't be. And he knew for a fact that a good majority of them were after his blood after his refusal to participate in their rebellion.

He was, in short, quite screwed.

Speaking of brethren…

Damasen was here, too, wasn't he? He was one of the nice ones. They hadn't been extremely close back when they were both on Earth, but surely he had the decency to help out a kindred spirit. Sacred hospitality was still a thing down here, was it not?

A bubble of hope started to rise in him.

So all he had to do was find Damasen, explain his situation, and dodge his other brethren in the meantime while traversing the unfamiliar terrain without a map or any semblance of knowledge of what lay ahead.

Yep, that sounded easy.

_Assuming he's not in hiding too, because the other giants were also after _his _blood_, his brain supplied.

Orion kindly told his brain to shut up.

He counted his arrows, checked the condition of his bow, and took inventory. Then he began trudging into an uncertain future.

* * *

Apollo should have known better.

He really should have known better.

It was somewhat regrettable, then, that he was having second thoughts about his part in Orion's death while staring down the operational end of his sister's bow.

He held up his arms in surrender, "Look, sis, I can explain-"

"Can you? _Can you_?" Forgoing the bow, Artemis sent her brother skidding backwards several cubits with a roundhouse kick to the stomach.

He hit the ground with an audible _crack_, tasting ichor in his mouth. Without missing a beat, Artemis dragged him up again and headbutted him.

Something else cracked.

"Why?" she demanded finally, voice shaking with primal rage.

Apollo took a deep breath to steady himself, "He wasn't good for you, sis. He was going to lure you into forgetting your vows, and-" he was cut off as she shoved him to the ground.

"_You have no right_," she aimed a kick at him. "No right to take what is mine, what is precious to me!" She pummeled him. "Why can't _any _of you just LEAVE ME BE?"

The last bit was a primal scream.

She withdrew, suddenly calm. "I believe you promised, brother, that you would respect my decisions. I see that making other people's decisions for them has become your trademark."

It was off putting, how devoid of emotion her voice was.

"I," Apollo coughed, "I didn't want to lose you."

Artemis's voice was cold, "Then you really should have thought this through before killing my friend, brother. You already did."

She left him there, covered in his own ichor.

In the end, everyone lost.

* * *

**So yeah. **

**End of part two.**

**I do have plans for part 3, and I do have ideas, but the issue is that there's way too many ideas, and I really do want to continue that pattern of ten chapters per part. **

**And then there was the issue of whether I should tack it on to the end of this fic, or just mark this one as complete and start a sequel. **

**I'm leaning towards tacking it on, but...*shrugs***

**Leave a review if you have a specific preference, I guess. **

**So thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!**


	21. 3rd Strikes: Divine Retribution

**Sup, guys!**

**I am back.**

**This is part three, as promised. I reread what I wrote in part two and decided that it was way too depressing, especially in the later chapters. This is supposed to have humor as a genre, for gods' sake! So I injected some humor.**

**Yeah. Tell me if this works.**

**This chapter doesn't feature Orion (Yes, gasp) and will instead feature Hippolytos, because I feel like he deserves a mention and I'm too lazy to write out another fic. So hopefully, this chapter does it justice.**

**So have fun, read, enjoy!**

**Also, review. **

* * *

Vengeance.

It wasn't like Artemis wasn't in favor of dishing out some divine retribution when push came to shove-the former king of Calydon could attest to that-but vengeance that required careful planning, which could take years to come to fruition? She lacked the patience for it.

It was funny, in a way. She was prepared to go years in order to hunt down a particularly evasive prey, but she wasn't willing to dedicate the same amount of time to something that wasn't all that different conceptually. But she never saw the practical reason for it: why waste years systematically destroying someone when a well placed arrow would do the trick? She preferred to outsource the brain work to Athena these days.

But this, _this _was crossing the line.

Hippolytos's dead body was laid out in front of his father, Theseus.

Artemis growled at the Athenian king, "You better have a damn good explanation for this."

Said king gulped, "My wife, Phaedra, said he attempted to rape her. She had killed herself because of it. I had to punish him for that!" **[1]**

Artemis took a deep breath, let it out. "And do you recall, by any chance, the oath all of my followers have to take?"

Theseus paled. "Yes."

She narrowed her eyes, "And yet you still condemned him. I knew Hippolytos, son of Poseidon, and I knew that he was one of those rare mortals who could not be moved by romance or lust. How is it, o _great_ and wise king, that I knew him better in one year than you did in twenty?"

The spawn of Poseidon flinched. She struck a nerve, then.

Good. She pressed on, "Or did it not matter to you what he wanted? As long as it was conventional? As long as it was _proper_? He had no interest in men or women, as I'm sure he had told you. Did you listen?"

Was she projecting a little? Definitely. That was fine, though. She needed to get things off her chest.

"Make no mistake, _boy_," she let her voice drip with contempt. "You may have triumphed in the past. You may think yourself a hero. But your strength does not make you a good one. Heroes _always_ fall, son of Poseidon. You will do well to remember that."

She gathered the broken body of the hunter in her arms.

"I'll deal with you later," she promised the king, before turning to leave.

"Wait!" the king called out. "At least give me a body to bury! Please!"

She smiled at him coldly. "You don't have to worry about that anymore."

She left without further elaboration. **[2]**

* * *

One might assume by the verbal thrashing she had just delivered to the king of Athens that her vengeance would be delivered to the aforementioned son of Poseidon.

It wasn't. Theseus's literal fall would come in its own time. Psychological torment would have to suffice for now. Artemis, meanwhile, had bigger prey to hunt.

Upon Hippolytos's arrival to her nephew's recovery and his subsequent resurrection, she was able to piece together a general idea of what had transpired.

Namely, Aphrodite.

That overgrown piece of seafoam didn't know when to stop, did she?

After thanking Asclepius for his help, awkwardly skirting around the fact that she had technically killed his mother upon Apollo's request **[3]**, and how she wasn't really on talking terms with his father anymore **[4]**, and making sure to give the man her blessing as thanks, she picked up the undead Hippolytos and transported him to one of her temples in Italy.

"My lady?" he asked, a little confused. "What am I doing here?"

"You're no longer safe in my Hunt," she paused, "Well, even less safe than usual, anyway. You have attracted the unwanted attention of the love goddess, and as your recent death has shown, it is something you really, _really_ don't want."

"So you're...kicking me out?" Hippolytos sounded absolutely devastated.

Artemis winced, "I'm trying to keep you safe. Italy is far enough out of the way that people wouldn't think to look here. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that. Believe me, you do _not _want to be in the center of attention for what's about to go down."

"Why? What's about to go down?"

"Well, I'd imagine Hades would not be happy about losing a soul. It's Olympian politics, Hippolytos. It is best you stay out of it: it gets bloody, especially when mortals are involved."

"Oh," he seemed to think it was worth the risk, but he didn't argue.

Artemis nodded. "You should stay here for a while. You're free to do what you want with your life. I will no longer hold you to my service."

"I-I think I'd like to continue to serve you. I can...be a priest, or something."

Something pleasant and warm grew inside her. "Very well."

He bowed, "It has been an honor being in your Hunt, my lady."

"It has been an honor having you in the ranks," she smiled.

"This is farewell, then."

* * *

If either a god or a mortal were to play word association with the name Ares, "blood" would probably be the first word to pop up, followed closely by "war" and "jerkass."

Yes, with the exceptions of the Spartans and the Amazons, Ares was not a popular god. He was, however, an impulsive one, and that made him easy to manipulate. Artemis wasn't one to _plot _beyond the basic doomsday prepping she usually did, and she definitely wasn't one to _conspire_, but in this case, she was more than happy to take a page out of Athena's playbook.

Between Ares's impulsiveness and his current status as Aphrodite's boyfriend, she was confident she could get him in on this. The fact that he owed her after the whole trapped-in-the-jar incident didn't hurt either.

She chose the form of a seventeen year old-the one she usually reserved for when she needed to be eye-to-eye with another god. "Ares."

The god turned his flame-filled eyes on her. "Artemis. Finally decided to rejoin society?"

Artemis gritted her teeth. Ares had an extremely punchable face. "I have a proposition."

Ares snorted, "You sound like Athena. 'I have a proposition.' Fancy words and no substance."

"That's because you didn't let me finish!" she snapped.

Ares raised his eyebrows, taken aback. "All right, I'm listening."

"Does anything come to your mind when you hear the word 'Adonis'?"

* * *

It was a bit ridiculous how fast she got Ares to agree to her plan after that. "So, I'll summon the wild boar?"

Artemis nodded, "It's your sacred animal, and he'll be killed while hunting, which is my thing. It would be difficult to trace back to any individual god, so you'd be off the hook with Aphrodite. Any questions?"

"Nope. Well, one. How do we make sure he would be the one to get mauled and not some random passerby?"

"Leave that one to me." **[5]**

* * *

In the end, it was a simple matter of leading Adonis's hunting dogs to the appropriate spot and watching the carnage happen.

Artemis watched the grieving goddess gather up the body of her dead love with a sort of vindictive satisfaction. That's what she got for taking away people she loved!

Perhaps the whole "revenge served cold" thing had some credit.

* * *

**So the whole revenge thingy came about when I was reading _Hippolytus_ by Euripides. Basically, after Hippolytos died, Artemis mentioned that she will exact revenge on one of Aphrodite's followers. I _think_ it was supposed to allude to the cycle of revenge. I also think that Artemis would take steps to make sure she doesn't get revenged back, such as making it slightly harder to trace back to her.**

**Alright, so this chapter does require a bit of explanation.**

**[1] So you'll notice that Hippolytos dies a bit differently than described in _Percy Jackson's Greek Gods_. I've decided to make it so that the way he died was closer to the original myths, though I did allude to Hippolytos's and Theseus's disagreement a bit. In _Hippolytus_, though, Euripides did have Hippolytos go on a tirade about women. I don't think that makes sense, though, seeing as Artemis in the play basically saw everything, and still cared enough to honor him. And she's the protector of women, and I don't think she would have appreciated misogynistic remarks coming from her model follower.**

**[2] I don't think Artemis would have liked Theseus, between the whole abandoning Ariadne on Naxos thing and the whole kidnapping Helen (who was like, twelve, and some sources say she was ten or even seven) and keeping her until she was of marriageable age thing. Also, he's the king of Athens, and Artemis had already made her opinion of Athens exceptionally clear.**

**[3] So that showed up in the _Tyrant's Tomb_. Remember how Apollo mentioned the whole ravens thing, and how their feathers are black because he cursed them after they told him that his former girlfriend Coronis cheated on him? Remember how he had Artemis kill her for him, and how she was pregnant at the time? Well, her unborn child was Asclepius.**

**[4] After Apollo had Orion killed, Artemis gave him the silent treatment for a few centuries. Or would have if the Trojan War hadn't broken out. More on that later.**

**[5] Remember the whole Artemis swearing vengeance thing I mentioned earlier? Well, Artemis and Ares were both suspects in Adonis's death, so I thought, why not?**


	22. 3rd Strikes: The Equine Conspiracy

**Hello, children!**

**I am back.**

**So in this chapter, I have decided to cover the Fall of Troy, because considering that this singular event set off a chain reaction that would accumulate in the flipping _Roman Empire_, did you really think I wouldn't?**

**Yeah, you probably did. Still, though, what is the point of covering the ancient times if you can't learn some stuff? No one said FanFiction couldn't be educational!**

**Now, unto announcements!**

**The thing is, I really, really like reviews. And thank you if you have already reviewed, but I, being the greedy author that I am, want _more_, from even more people. I _could_ hold a chapter hostage unless the reviews come in, but I don't have the patience to wait. Also, that would be mean. Then I realized, there is a tactic used by many people, and it has been historically proven to be effective!**

**Bribery.**

**But what can one measly fanfic author possibly offer to their audience?**

**More fanfic, of course.**

**Bonus content, to put it bluntly. Those who review...shall we say five?...different chapters will get bonus chapters in the form of author-character interactions and jokes at the author's expense. Heck, I'll even accept PM if you're not comfortable with publicly sharing your reviews. Just give me a way to make sure it's the same person reviewing (like using distinct names if you're reviewing as a guest), and fill out the google form in my bio once you hit number five. Make sure the reviews have stuff that relates to the actual story, though. I do not count reviews that say stuff like "apple pie" and no explanation. If you've already reviewed five times, just fill in the google form in my bio.**

**So, to summarize, five reviews per bonus chapter. Google form in bio to figure out how best to get said chapters to you. Reviews have to relate to the story.**

**Got it?**

**Sweet, enjoy the chapter and review! **

* * *

Eventful.

A lot had happened in twenty years.

First, there was the matter of Orion getting stung by a scorpion and dying. Then, because Artemis loved to torture herself, she tried having another male companion on the Hunt, just to prove that having males in close proximity to her wasn't going to end in disaster.

Yeah, that didn't really work out. Hippolytos barely lasted a year.

Having males on the Hunt wasn't...completely horrible, though things got a bit messier than she would have liked with Orion. Still, she should probably take it as a sign that this whole coed thing wouldn't work out. One unusually gory death was a data point. Two was the start of a trend.

And then, because the Fates have clearly decided that they had been slacking in the Major Events department, they decided to spice things up by starting a _war_.

It was a big one.

The thing about warfare was that up until that point, most of the skirmishes Artemis and most of the gods had seen were rather small. After all, Greece wasn't really a unified country, so conflict between city-states was to be expected. Most battles amounted to what was essentially a staring contest between the two sides. Casualties were low, most barely lasting more than an hour, and considering that the belligerents were usually city-states, armies were usually tiny. With the exception of Sparta, most soldiers weren't even trained in combat, and were required to bring their own equipment to the army. **[1]**

The "small armies" thing went out the window because ten years ago, a man named Odysseus had the brilliant idea to propose an alliance between the suitors of Helen so that they would come to defend her matrimony in the unlikely event that she got kidnapped, or something. That seemingly throwaway oath came back to bite when that exact eventuality happened, and suddenly, the biggest and most disorganized military Greece had ever seen found itself on the shores of Troy. **[2]**

The low casualties bit got nullified through the combined efforts of Achilles and some godly intervention. Achilles had been rather..._upset_ about the death of his lover, Patroclus, and proceeded to express his utmost displeasure by cutting down entire Trojan armies before her twin brother, Apollo, had the sense to guide Paris's arrow into his one mortal spot.

Everyone on the Trojan side breathed a sigh of relief at that. Seriously, that man was a monster.

That, however, was nothing compared to the effects of godly intervention. Artemis's mother, Leto, had been rather fond of the city Troy, so naturally, she and Apollo fought on the Trojan side of things. That had been the first time they talked in a decade. It was a shame, really: she had really hoped it would be longer.

But no matter. She made it clear that she wasn't going to forgive him any time soon.

Aphrodite was on the same side as her, for once. Her boyfriend, Ares, joined as a gesture of support.

Fortunately, she and Ares had an agreement to never tell the love goddess that they were involved in her lover's death. Unfortunately, it was the only thing they could agree on.

Why was it that she was at odds with all her allies?

(Except Mother, of course. Mother was the best and shall remain that way.)

Long story short, everyone _really_ let themselves go. Ares was doing his usual stabbing-everyone routine until he got stabbed back by a mortal, of all people. Not even a demigod. It had been rather satisfying, watching him get chewed out by Zeus. Apollo later got into a fight with the same mortal, though he was able to intimidate the man into submission. **[3]** Artemis's own head still smarted from the time Hera smacked it, which was a rather devastating blow to her pride, if nothing else. Say what one would about that old cow, but she was _dangerous_ when slighted.

Somewhere down the line, the king of the gods had noticed the sheer level of damage they had been dishing out and forbade them from interfering further. None of the gods were happy about it, but since the decree had been addressed to both sides, they couldn't say that it was unfair. Most of the gods were now confined to Olympus, not allowed to do anything but watch the battle unfold beneath them.

Artemis said _most_, because she was pretty sure Athena was up to something.

It was the rather voluminous wooden horse that the Greeks were constructing that first piqued her suspicions. After all, ten years of siege, and only _now_ were the Greeks resorting to espionage? It seemed rather convenient that they chose to change tactics almost immediately after the gods withdrew from the war, though Artemis supposed that Odysseus of Ithaca was clever enough to come up with something like this.

But what _really_ sold it was the serpents.

Which brought her to the present.

Artemis watched in fascinated horror as the old man, Laocoon, and his sons were strangled in graphic fashion as punishment for hurling a spear at the empty belly of the horse. **[4]**

Sea serpents with alarming mobility on land? Laser eyes? _Really_? **[5]**

Athena had always been creative when thinking up monsters, but damn. That was a bit overkill, wasn't it? Especially since the old man had been right on just about every count.

Still, Artemis supposed she shouldn't judge. Disproportionate retribution ran in the family, after all.

The deed was done, anyway. The Trojans dragged the horse inside, tearing apart chunks of their own wall to do so.

Artemis winced. This was going to _suck_.

* * *

Sure enough, later that night, Troy was in flames. **[6]**

It was not a pretty sight. Artemis had seen her share of brutality over the eons; dished some out, too. But for a supposedly benign race of lesser lifeforms, she had never failed to be shocked at the sheer cruelty mortals were capable of dealing unto each other. The slaughter of innocent children, the enslavement of the survivors, the massacres, the mass rapes...it was almost enough for her to turn away so the image of the burning city wouldn't be etched into her memory forever.

At least monsters were either being too mindless to comprehend what they're doing, or too bitter to care. What excuse did these mortals have?

Still, she felt like she owed it to the fallen city to pay respects, so she materialized at the hill where her Hunters have set up camp.

"My lady!" Zoe limped forward, surprised.

"Zoe," she greeted her lieutenant. During the war, she had thought that her Hunters would be more divided about which side to take. After all, she had recruits from most Greek city-states and then some. She was thus a bit surprised and also gratified to find that they had unanimously offered-well, insisted, really- to fight for whatever side she chose.

Still, the Hunters took casualties. Zoe herself took an arrow to the knee that put her out of commission for quite some time. Still, with a bit of nectar, ambrosia, moonwater, healing magic, a health restoration potion made from a blue mountain flower and a butterfly wing that Artemis had bought off some alchemist in the north, and the liberal application of willow bark **[7]**, Artemis was confident that she would make a full recovery within a few decades.

"The city is burning," Zoe said. "Shall we mobilize?"

Artemis sighed, "Not this time. We're forbidden to interfere. I'm here to pay my respects to the city."

Zoe looked a bit upset. Understandable: the Hunters put a lot of work into defending Troy for it to just be destroyed. Still, the Fates had spoken: the son of Priam would bring about ruin to the city. Not even the gods could do anything about it now.

Artemis watched as the royal family got cut down at the altar of Zeus. Neoptolemus took after his father, for certain. Even still, at least Achilles had basic decency. Killing Polites in front of his father was just cruel. Killing Priam on the altar of Zeus was just rude.

In the destruction, she could make out a man-a demigod gathering up first his family and then the remaining survivors: Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite. That man wasn't bad, to be honest. Not too prideful, not too vain **[8]**. He was surprisingly skilled with a sword for a child of the love goddess.

She watched as the hero looked frantically for his wife, Creusa, and felt a sense of...not exactly foreboding. But she knew that the man was important for something in the future.

Aeneas never would find Creusa again, and that was supposed to be fine, because destiny and all that. Still, looking at the devastated expression on his face…

The Fates really were cruel sometimes, weren't they?

* * *

**So yeah.**

**Fall of Troy.**

**So hopefully that wasn't too boring. I thought I'd give a brief rundown of what happened in the last twenty years before we dive into the next chapter. **

**[1] Ancient Greek armies generally consisted of Hoplites, which is a kind of heavily armed foot soldier. They're generally civilians, and are generally not trained (with the exception of Sparta, because of course). Their armies are also small enough that each soldier was required to bring their own weapons and equipment to the army. In battle, the two armies would meet, arrange themselves in a phalanx formation, which is a kind of a long line in which each soldier covers one side of the body with their shield and the person next to them covers the undefended half. They then push against each other and try to break the other side's line.**

**[2] As one might expect, previously loosely connected city-states suddenly forced to work together does not yield terribly harmonious results.**

**[3] Diomedes. Seriously, the dude was a _badass._**

**[4] This is taken from the _Aeneid. _It's from this dude that we get the infamous quote "I do not trust the Greeks, even those bearing gifts."**

**[5] Yes, this actually happened. No, I did not make that up. I was, in my senior year of high school, tasked with translating the **_**Aeneid **_**from Latin, and there was a line about the serpents having flames from their eyes, or something. In other words, laser eyes.**

**[6] Actually, the _Aeneid_ referred to the city of Troy as Ilium, which is where we get the _Iliad_ from, and the Greeks as Achaeans. I didn't put it in there, because I thought it might be confusing.**

**[7] Early form of Aspirin.**

**[8] Believe it or not, Aeneas's fatal flaw isn't hubris (I know, gasp!). There are a lot of people who argued that his fatal flaw was indecision, as in, he never really had autonomy over his own life.**

**So, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed, and leave a review!**


	23. 3rd Strikes: Corruptible Memories

**Hey guys!**

**I'm back.**

**So here's the next chapter, don't forget to review! As before, for every five reviews you put in, you get a bonus chapter. (Link in my bio to figure out how best to get it to you). Reviews have relate to the story.**

**Thanks, and enjoy!**

* * *

_Artemis_.

It was getting increasingly difficult to remember his life on Earth before he got banished here, but Orion clung to that name, the piercing silver eyes of the goddess that bore it…

It got him through most days, whatever constituted days in this dark, desolate world.

It had taken a few weeks to find his brother Damasen, who had carved out his own little corner of Tartarus, having constructed a hut out of the bones of the drakon he fought and killed every day. He had run into several of his other giant relatives along the way, half of which wanted to kill him for deserting, the other half of which wanted to convert him to their "glorious cause".

Both types of confrontations tended to end in duals to the death. Sometimes Orion won. Sometimes he didn't.

Damasen was nice enough. The other giant had missed the surface world, and Orion had plenty of stories to tell. Together they had shared meals and even the occasional joke. It was the best company that he could ask for in his current circumstances. Orion might have stayed with his brother for the rest of his days if it weren't for one thing.

Orion really, really wanted to go back to Earth.

And Damasen's own despair was seriously off-putting.

"It's not possible, brother," Damasen had lamented over a bowl of drakon meat soup. "Believe me, I have tried, as have some of our more hostile brothers and sisters. It simply isn't possible for giants to escape Tartarus."

Orion had looked into Damasen's eyes, hollow when they had once been kind and full of life, and thought, "I can't be like this. I _won't_ become like this."

He had to get out of Tartarus.

Thus, they had parted ways. Damasen assured him that he would be welcome back anytime. The other giant had even gifted him a new bow and a set of arrows fashioned from drakon bone.

"Think of something that grounds you_,_" Damasen advised before Orion left. "It's easy to lose yourself here. Remember who you were."

It was fairly easy to think of something to tether him. Artemis and the Hunt had pretty much been the highlight of his existence, and they were the main reason he wanted to go back in the first place.

It was easy, at first, to keep his memories and view them in the context in which they happened. After a few years, though, in the harsh terrain and his being forced to make more and more brutal choices, the memories started being...tainted by his mindset and the dark, oppressive atmosphere of Tartarus. There was also the fact that he had repeated the names of the people he held dear to him so many times that they started losing meaning.

It wasn't a good sign, but he pushed on.

Then he started dropping names from that list.

Most of the Hunters went first, until only Zoe, Phoebe, and Agatha were left. Zoe was the lieutenant-it would be difficult to forget that-Phoebe was amongst the best healers and trackers, and an excellent converser, and Agatha was the first Hunter to join since he had joined. One always remembered their firsts.

Then even that list started shrinking, or least, started getting pushed to the side because of the last name on that list.

Artemis.

And the goddess was more important than all the rest, wasn't she?

So it just became a repetition of _Artemis_, over and over again.

He thought he must have been in love with her, as he convinced a group of empousa to reveal how to get back to the surface.

He thought perhaps she loved him back, as he hacked the empousa to bits, thanking them for their service.

The thought didn't feel quite right, but then again, almost nothing felt right, those days. He was consorting with monsters, he was backstabbing the same monsters as soon as they outlived their usefulness. Nothing was right. He was also pretty sure he was steadily losing his sanity and morality, even though the spell Apollo had cast on him had long since worn off. The thought gave him enough motivation to keep going, at any rate, even if it weren't true.

Wasn't it true? He couldn't really tell anymore, any more than he could tell how many monsters he had slaughtered while he was down there.

There was too much blood on his hands. It _must_ have been true, then: why would he go to such lengths for a delusion?

Finally, _finally_, he reached the highest part of Tartarus, where the bottomless pit just _slightly _grazed the bottom of the Earth.

Mother had implied that he would eventually be allowed to go back on Earth, after all. If, hypothetically, he pretended to have a change of heart, Gaea might be convinced to let him go back.

_What happens if she catches on to your trick?_

Orion, not for the first time, told his mind to shut up. The time for doubt was not now.

* * *

_Well_, Artemis thought. _This is new._

It was nighttime, and a certain constellation was shining brighter than usual.

Artemis tried not to get her hopes up. It _had_ been more than two decades since she'd last seen her friend, after all. Besides, Orion was a giant: she had never heard of giants coming back from the dead. She wasn't sure if it was even possible, unless Gaea really made an effort. And why would Gaea make an effort? Orion was hardly the most obedient son she's ever had.

Still, it would be foolish to ignore a sign like that. Artemis reached out with her senses, trying to sense a disturbance in nature, or something.

Nothing.

Slightly disappointed, she turned back to her tent. It _was_ getting fairly late. Whatever that was, she would just have to figure out what it means later, when she had more to go on.

Still, she couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that came over her.

* * *

_Well_, Orion thought. _This was easier than I expected_.

Convincing Gaea to let him back worked surprisingly smoothly once he spent a few decades trying to get in contact with her. He didn't even have to put that much effort into his lies. He got the feeling she was just humoring him, though he couldn't fathom why. It didn't matter, though, because he was _free_.

Tartarus was a thing of the past.

It was nice, breathing in air that wasn't corrosive.

It was night. Quite a few constellations had been added since he was gone. Including, he was rather flattered to note, himself. He had a few qualms about the scorpion thing that had killed him the first time around being right behind his constellation self, but he was sure Artemis could explain things to him.

_Artemis_…

Perhaps that's why she put up the constellation of him, as a way to tether him to Earth so he could have a way to come back. Giants didn't usually come back from Tartarus, after all. Not without a lot of help. It required a small part of his essence to anchor him onto the surface world for him to come back like a normal monster would.

That was awfully nice of her, Orion thought. A small smile graced his lips. He might have had his sanity chipped at over the decades, but he thought he could hold on to something true now: he loved Artemis, and she loved him back.

He trudged forward, into the forest. He was sure she would welcome him back with open arms.

She loved him, after all.

* * *

**Well, this one's a bit dark...**

**So I've been trying to come up with a logical explanation that Orion could come back from the dead, considering that most giants can't. Gaea had to bind the doors of death and stuff to allow the other giants through. Then I realized that Artemis had made him into a constellation, and I was like, "Ah! I can use that!"**

**So yeah. Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to leave a review!**


	24. 3rd Strikes: Coming Back Wrong

**Hello, guys! I'm back.**

**Wow, you say. It's been only, what, two days?**

**I know! But I've hit something of a writer's block, caused by having simultaneously too much and too little things to write about, so I'm posting now to motivate myself into writing. Hopefully. I like living life on the edge, you see.**

**The decision-making paradox is odd like that.**

**This chapter needs a bit of warning: aftermath of the slaughter of cute, fluffy animals, and some violence. Not enough to warrant an M, I think, but definitely a hard T.**

**Please enjoy and review! Some incentive: one bonus chapter per five reviews. I've written out the first four parts. Just make sure the reviews actually relates to the story and fill out the contact info form in my bio. That's...pretty much it.**

**Yeah. Have fun!**

* * *

Shrine.

That was the impression that Artemis got as she examined the dead deer. It had expertly been beheaded, its head placed on a pike. A bunch of palm leaves and cuts of cypress lay at the base: _her_ sacred animals and plants.

That wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that all the small animals in the area had been brutally murdered as well. Artemis frowned: the scene was disturbingly familiar to how she had found the dead body of Orion. Most others wouldn't dare blatantly infringe on her domain like this.

Yet somehow, the damage had seemed more...controlled. As if it hadn't been the work of someone who had lost their sanity to bloodlust, but more of someone who had been looking to construct a scene.

The scene was a calling card, Artemis realized. To _her_.

But who would try to get her attention in such a manner? More to the point, who had such a poor sense of self-preservation that they would attempt such a thing?

Apollo? But if he wanted to make amends, he wouldn't risk angering her _further_. And she seriously doubted he had the patience to get her attention in such a roundabout manner.

Not Apollo, then. Some deranged fan, perhaps? No, they wouldn't have cleaned up after themselves so nicely. Whoever did this made sure to leave no tracks.

So who would seek to gain her attention by creating a scene that explicitly alluded to her dear friend's-

Oh.

Oh no.

Oh _nonononononono-_

But she _had _spotted Orion's constellation acting strangely, and only Orion could hide his tracks from her, the hunting goddess, so well.

But how? As far as she knew, giants don't come back from the dead.

_The stars,_ she realized.

When she made Orion into a constellation, she had separated a part of his essence from the rest of him. Perhaps that piece was big enough for the rest of him as an anchor.

She swore under her breath, uttering words that no twelve-year old should know. She had put Orion in the stars as a gesture of kindness. Of _course_ that backfired on her.

Artemis summoned her bow, gripping it tight. She couldn't be sure of Orion's mental state. He wasn't the sanest of beings when he died, and she had no idea how Tartarus would have affected his psyche.

She would have to be on high alert from then on.

* * *

"My lady," Orion stood in front of her. He had gotten a new bow and set of arrows. Aside from that, he looked the same as she remembered him. His arms were raised in a gesture of peace.

And things were very, _very_ wrong.

His smile was too bright, too brittle. Orion's eyes darted everywhere, as if seeing things that weren't there. Despite having his arms up, he was stiff, as if expecting an attacker.

"I apologize for taking so long in coming back," Orion continued. "But know that in all this time, I have never ceased to love you."

_Love her?_

Didn't she already make it clear to him that she didn't see him that way? She must have: it was one of those uncomfortable conversations that one wasn't liable to forget anytime soon. Orion had been disappointed, but he had come around eventually...hadn't he?

And why were all her instincts tingling in alarm?

"And the animals you slaughtered?" she asked, because she wasn't one to tolerate something like that-she only let it go the first time because the perpetrator was driven insane and was killed right after.

Orion seemed surprised, "I dedicated them to you, my lady. I apologize: I thought you would appreciate them."

"You thought I would..._appreciate_ a clearing full of dead wild animals and my sacred animal's head on a pike?"

"And your sacred flowers. All dedicated to you," he added, as if it was supposed to make it better.

By the dog, he's lost it.

It felt like a fist had grabbed her gut and pulled. This wasn't the affable, somewhat awkward giant she had parted with. This Orion was cracked, jagged, _twisted_.

What had happened to him down there?

"Orion," she said quietly. She had been hoping that she wouldn't have to go through this _again_. "We weren't together. We never were."

Orion's expression went blank. For a long moment, he was silent.

"I see," he said at last. His voice was flat.

Artemis could tell that he really didn't see.

"That was a bit uncalled for, is it not? Playing with my emotions like that?"

"What?"

"I went through Tartarus for you, my lady. I've been trapped there for _decades_. I've had to lie, cheat, and kill just to have a _chance_ to claw my way back up here, with just the thought of coming back to you to sustain me. And you mean to tell me that _we were never together_?"

"...Yes. That is what I said."

Orion _giggled_. It wasn't one of the happy, carefree ones she was used to hearing from her Hunters. It was the hysterical, insane kind of laugh from someone who's lost their last remnants of self-control.

Artemis's instincts screamed_._ She backed away, hands ready to summon her bows and arrows with a thought.

Orion managed to stop laughing. He looked between the spot she had been, at the spot she currently was, hands poised to summon her weapons, and something snapped.

He charged.

She did the natural thing: she summoned her bows and arrows and fired.

The arrow pierced him in the throat. He fell forward, the momentum pushing it in further.

He gurgled, somehow managing to lift his head up to look at her, eyes filling with hate.

Artemis felt cold. Dread rolled over her. The sense of foreboding came back, stronger than ever before.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. Orion just glared at her more, his wound already closing. His hands went to the arrow shaft, as if trying to pull it out. She resisted the urge to tell him to stop, that it would make the blood loss worse. It was becoming increasingly clear that Orion wasn't a friend anymore. Not even an ally.

She turned on her heel and left, guilt weighing her down. She left him alive, though: she was horribly sentimental about people whom she allowed to get close to her, and she _had _just shot her former friend in the throat. It was her way to assuage her own guilt.

In hindsight, it was a decision she would come to regret for the rest of the rest of her life.

* * *

**According to numerous people, I write insanity pretty well. I don't know if that's a point for concern.**

**Why, yes. I _have_ been trapped in quarantine with no one but my parents. Why do you ask?**

**So...that happened. This chapter was probably one of the darkest things I've written so far. The next chapter will be lighter. Probably. It mostly depends on the mood I'm in.**

**You'll just have to wait and find out, I guess.**

**Thanks for reading, guys. Remember to leave a review!**


	25. 3rd Strikes: Burning Bridges

**Hey guys! I'm back.**

**As I have mentioned before, I've hit a bit of a writer's block. Thanks to about a dozen videos from OSP, Daryl Talks Games, and various other YouTube videos discussing literature, tropes, and FanFiction, some sleep deprivation, and me banging my head against the desk a few times, I was able to unblock myself enough to write another chapter. **

**Huzzah!**

**Although I am writing without a concrete idea of where this is going, unlike the other parts, so feel free to leave suggestions about what I should write about next.**

**So read, enjoy, and review! Remember the bonus chapters? That's still on. You know the drill: five relevant reviews per bonus chapter. Honestly, I've written a lot already, and I'd hate to see it go unread.**

**So yeah. That's pretty much it for now.**

* * *

Delos.

The first thing to come to mind would probably be that it was the birthplace of the twin gods, Artemis and Apollo. The second thing was probably that no one was allowed to be born or killed there. Slightly stranger and admittedly difficult to enforce, but there it was **[1]**.

It was, at present, a sort of neutral ground for the twin gods after what had become known as the Orion Incident, what with Artemis still being more than a little angry about Apollo's part in his death, and Apollo being rather put out about Artemis's role in his son Asclepius's death and his own subsequent punishment **[2]**.

Gods could hold long grudges, this ability only surpassed by their refusal to apologize when their pride was on the line. Apollo still maintained that the giant was a bad influence on Artemis, and it had been almost two decades: why wasn't she over it yet? Artemis argued that killing the cyclops had been his own fault, and suggested that perhaps Apollo would understand her sentimental attachment to Orion more if he could keep the mortals he had gotten attached to alive for more than a few weeks.

It had only spiraled downward from there.

In the end, it was their mother who had intervened. Leto had understood the two gods' stubbornness more than most, so she knew that telling them not to fight was utterly useless. It was also the first real fight the two had had, so Leto understood it was Serious Business. She suggested an Arrangement: no physical aggression that would cause collateral damage, no curses that would cause collateral damage, no collateral damage in general, and they had to meet up on Delos every year on to celebrate their birthdays under a truce.

The twins, war-weary and somewhat traumatized by the fiasco that was the Sack of Troy, had agreed.

In theory, it made Thargelia a peaceful, festive time when the two put together their differences and the three celebrated as a family. In practice, it made for some very...creative ways to bend the rules as the twins' disagreements spilled over in the form of increasingly passive-aggressive jabs **[3]**.

"Good morning, sister. Isn't it a nice day?" Apollo sounded like he was in physical pain.

"Indeed, dear brother. I am so glad that I get to spend it with you," Artemis's smile was forced, and resembled more of a grimace. Her hands were twitching, like she wanted to summon her bow and arrows.

Behind them, Leto decided that self-restraint was no longer a worthwhile exercise and face-palmed. _Just two more days_, she prayed. _Just two more days._

* * *

Orion coughed. The arrow had _hurt_, though it hadn't done any lasting damage, being a giant and all.

_Was it worth it, Artemis?_ He thought spitefully. _Because despite your violent behavior, the only thing you managed to break so far is my heart._

Never in his life had he felt more _betrayed_. Not when the king of Chios had blinded him. Not when the various giants still stuck in Tartarus tried to kill him, especially since he had technically betrayed them first.

Seriously, he went through Tartarus, the pit of eternal damnation, with the single minded goal of reuniting with the goddess, an ultimate show of love and faith, and he got rewarded with rejection and an arrow to the throat?

He might have loved Artemis, but he still had pride. If she wouldn't have him, he wasn't going to go out of his way to win her back.

So what was he going to do now?

The ground rumbled. He straightened, anticipating an attack, perhaps from another scorpion. Instead, a sleepy looking woman manifested next to him. Gaea, his mother, sitting casually on a stump as if _he _had been the one to materialize at her feet.

"Poor child", the primordial seemed almost sympathetic. "So earnest, yet cast away as soon as the bloom is gone."

That manipulative...something. Orion struggled to come up with something bad enough to describe Gaea. "You're the one who started the whole thing."

"Only because I wanted to show you the truth, dear child. The gods are vain, self-centered, and forgetful. They forget what others do for them, and they abandon them as soon as the benefits outweigh the costs."

Orion knew that anything that came out of his mother's mouth was a means to control him. The problem was, a lot of what she was saying resonated.

"I understand that you do not trust me, my son," Gaea sounded melancholy, like she was genuinely sad about it. "But the truth is that you, as a giant, are not _meant _to love mortals or gods. I should know: I created you to destroy them. It's a lesson you needed to learn."

Orion shook his head, "I can, and I _have_ loved both mortals and gods. It's not any of your-"

"And how many of them worked out for you? Your attempt at love with that mortal girl ended with her death **[4]**. The goddess Eos abandoned you. Your attempt at flirting with that other mortal girl ended with you blinded and in exile. Now, your dear, precious Artemis has rejected you. Do you sense a pattern?"

"I...I don't have to listen to this," he unslung his bow.

"You have wondered why I let you come back to this world, yes?" Gaea straightened a bit. "It's because I knew it would end like this. You've gotten _boring_, Orion. She's replaced you before, you know: it didn't even take her more than a year. A bright, young _mortal_ man named Hippolytos." **[5]**

"Yes," she sounded genuinely regretful as she observed his stricken expression. "I have been watching, in some of my moments awake. The boy's dead now. Killed by Aphrodite to settle a petty grudge. I'm sure you've run into her as well."

Orion gritted his teeth at the mention of the meddlesome goddess. As much as he despised his mother, Gaea knew exactly how to get under his skin. "I don't think that's any of your business."

"If you'd like," Gaea shrugged, unaffected. Orion hated that he couldn't get a rise out of her.

"What do you expect me to do? Follow your orders like a puppet because I hate the gods?"

"You aren't a puppet if you have your own reasons for hating the gods, only allies with a common goal," Gaea said. "I can promise you acceptance. Forgiveness. And if you want, revenge. That is why you came to like the Hunters in the first place, didn't you? Lack of judgement for your past actions? The chance to start anew? But they _do _judge you, don't they? They judged you because you were male, and they judged you because you were a giant. Why continue to follow them so faithfully?"

Orion took an unsteady breath. Gaea was _extremely_ persuasive. He wondered if she was charmspeaking somehow, but rejected the idea. Gaea doesn't need charmspeaking to manipulate people: she had experience. "What do I have to do?"

* * *

The first sign that leaving Orion alive and without support for his Tartarus-related issues was going to go down in history as a Bad Move happened on the second day of Thargelia. Artemis was about to take another bite of fruit, ready to deliver another thinly veiled insult about Apollo's lack of foresight despite being the prophecy god when she doubled over, overwhelmed by a high concentration of prayers coming from her Hunters, saturated with shock and outrage and _grief_.

Apollo was so surprised that he forgot to hurl his barbed comment about her being defeated by the goddess of marriage. "Sister?"

The world was spinning. Things were wrong, wrong, _wrong. _She hadn't felt such a disturbance since...she's _never _felt such a disturbance before.

Someone had attacked the Hunt while she was away. Deliberate murder for the sake of murder.

They were in peacetime now! While she had lost numbers during the war, they had been emotionally prepared for it: it was war. Who would do this?

_There's only one person who would, and you know it._

"Sister!" Apollo's voice cut through her thoughts. "What happened?"

Artemis managed to sit back up-when had she fallen down? "The Hunt," she said. "I need to check up on my Hunt."

Apollo looked worried. "Do you want me to come with-"

"No!" she said, a bit more harshly than intended. "It's fine, Apollo. Just...keep going with the festivities. I'll be back. Tell Mother where I've been."

She flashed away before he could protest.

* * *

She arrived at the scene to the sight of multiple injured Hunters and quite a few bodies.

"It happened so fast," said Zoe. She had damaged her kneecap further by trying to run prematurely. Her face was such a perfect picture of misery that Artemis didn't have the heart to berate her. The thoughts _I'm a failure, I'm a failure_ were projecting so clearly that Artemis didn't need to read her mind to hear it.

And Agatha was dead.

According to those who had been near her, it seemed that whoever had attacked her (_Orion, you know who it is, you coward_) had targeted her specifically. One of the Hunters had suggested that perhaps it was one of her family, come to "punish" her for running away from her marriage.

Artemis knew it wasn't. It had been almost three decades since Agatha joined, and no one was skilled enough to ambush the Hunters like that, much less making an enemy of her. Agatha had been the first Hunter to join after Orion, and the inciting incident that allowed him to finally get along with everyone. Agatha's death was a message: Orion had officially cut all ties with the Hunters. And he was declaring war.

* * *

**Yep, I think the word Orion was looking for was "b****". Gaea loves to manipulate people. It helped that the gods weren't the epitome of good behavior, either.**

**[1] I was going to put in a reference about the Delian League, but I realized that the timelines weren't right, as the Persian Wars hadn't happened yet. Basically an alliance of Ionian Greeks (led by Athens) whose treasury was on Delos, formed after the Greco-Persian Wars. Well, they were going to have to maintain a gigantic navy _somehow_. Just in case the Persians came back. Even though Athens later started embezzling money to fund temple building, and it turned out that such a gigantic navy was unnecessary because Athens made a secret deal with the Persians not to attack them. It just ended up being very corrupt in the end, as with all nice things.**

**[2] The murder of the Elder Cyclops. Apollo had to live as a mortal for a while, though it wasn't all bad, considering that Ademetus was nice and Apollo liked him so much that he made all his cows have twin calves.**

**[3] This dynamic was inspired by the Olympic games back in Ancient Greece. I know that Ancient Greece invented them, but technically it was Rome that made it more similar to the format we see today. Back then, participation was limited to free citizens of various city-states, and despite the whole "put aside our differences" thing, it was viewed as a way for various city-states to win clout over their enemies. Rome made it open to foreigners, though there still was politics involved. In conclusion, telling people to put their differences aside for a certain event doesn't usually work. **

**[4] Side. She was a former girlfriend of Orion who died.**

**[5] As we see, Artemis _does_ care about her followers. I suppose it's because making them immortal means she's less liable to lose them, so she could let herself get attached. Gaea is just manipulating Orion by giving him something easily confirmed and mixing it with a lie that he couldn't easily disprove. Orion, on the other hand, _knew_ he was being manipulated: he just wasn't in the correct mental state to care.**

**I think that's it for the notes. Hmm, I have some ideas about what to write for the next chapter, but I don't have a general plan what to do. For example, should I cover the the Persian War? The Peloponnesian War? Aeneas' founding of Lavinium? Should I skip to the Roman times? Should I cover something I haven't mentioned yet? It's all very open ended, and at this point, I'm very open to suggestions. **

**Let me know what you think in the reviews, I suppose.**


	26. 3rd Strikes: Confrontation

**I am back! Ta-da!**

**Coming with your new chapter. Yes, I've missed you too. **

**I've been trying to make longer chapters, but I didn't want the differences to be _too_ abrupt, so it's been slowly inching upwards. I think this chapter was three and a half pages on a Google Doc. Chapter one of this story was maybe one page. So yeah. **

**In this chapter, we get to hear from Zoe. You guys missed her, right?**

**Please review. I love feedback about my work (or just, you know, a general "This is awesome"/"This sucks"). As I've mentioned before, five reviews get you a bonus chapter. And it's at a fixed up, so like, ten reviews equals two chapters and stuff. So if you want to see character-author interactions and missing scenes, leave a review. Or private message. I'm not particular. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Worry.

Zoe had been gone for a fortnight, and Artemis hadn't heard from her in half that time. She would just have to assume that no news was good news.

After the first attack on her Hunt, it had quickly devolved into a game of cat and mouse. She might have had a leftover soft spot from when he was a friend, but attacking her other Hunters (companions, _friends_)? It was crossing a line. They were _her_ Hunters, dammit: hers to cherish, hers to befriend, so it was to her utmost displeasure that they were being used as collateral damage in something that was supposed to be personal. Besides, even without sentiment being evolved, it was one follower versus several dozen. It was simple mathematics.

The issue was, Orion was an extremely difficult giant to hunt down. It wasn't like Otis and Ephialtes, where all she had to do was run between them and get them to kill each other. Orion, being the bane of her and Apollo, was also extremely good with hunting. Whenever Artemis was with the Hunters, he would simply stay away. Whenever she wasn't, he would strike without warning and slip away before she could confront him. It was incredibly annoying.

And he didn't even have the decency to limit his attacks to the Hunters. She has been getting reports that some mysterious entity with absurdly accurate archery skills had been attacking the Amazons as well. Either that infernal son of Poseidon, Sciron **[1]**, had somehow returned from the dead, or it was Orion. That seemed a bit overkill, considering that the Amazons weren't even involved, but judging from the testimony from one of the few survivors, Orion had gone quite far off the deep end and developed a hatred for all independent women, Hunter or not.

It was probably at that point that Orion went from being unforgivable to being prey.

Regrettably, while Artemis would have been happy to spend years hunting him down, those under her protection were more at risk the longer Orion stayed alive. They were on a time crunch.

She had already told the Hunters and Amazons exactly whom they were dealing with, of course. It would have been incredibly foolish and irresponsible to leave them in the dark because she wanted to look good in front of her followers for a mistake _she_ had made. Apollo, on the other hand…

Yes, she still held a grudge about the Incident, and Orion's defection had been technically Apollo's fault, anyway, what with his meddling causing him to get killed in the first place. Unfortunately, she was fairly sure that if she ever told him about that, Apollo would have taken the time to gloat before he did anything helpful.

Little brothers were annoying that way.

And yes, perhaps that was her pride speaking, but she _did _feel responsible for Orion, in a way. Telling the Hunters and Amazons was a necessity, but then again, she did prefer their company more than most of the other gods. _This_ particular squabble felt a bit...personal? At any rate, she'd much rather that the other gods didn't get involved.

Though she might be forced to, if it didn't resolve itself quickly.

* * *

Zoe was distinctly _not_ having a good time.

Perhaps it was the fact that she had run into a hydra within ten minutes after she had set out to track down Orion, an encounter rate that had yet to go down. Perhaps it was the fact that her knee was acting up again-it had been deemed properly healed by Phoebe, but Zoe supposed that constantly maneuvering didn't strictly fit the definition of "rest". Perhaps it was because she had taken to sleeping on top of trees to avoid being caught off guard by whatever was on the ground. Whatever the case, trudging through the forest, which normally relaxed her, made her feel cranky and on edge.

She felt uneasy, a constant churning sensation in her abdomen. It must have been because she was so far into the forest now that the leaves were blocking out a good portion of the sunlight, making it difficult to make Iris messages. Yes, that must be it. Nothing to do with how she was hunting down someone she once considered a friend. Certainly not.

She stopped at a stream, gathering some of the water to her lips before refilling her water canteen. Splashing some water on her face and arms, Zoe got up again.

It was difficult to tell what direction she was heading under that kind of lighting. She was under enough shade that shadows were everywhere. The mold technique was also unreliable under the same conditions. The stars had yet to come out.

Zoe wasn't _lost_, per se. She knew she needed to head southwest, and now that she found the stream, she could guess that it was flowing westward, since she had climbed the small mountain range, reached the peak, and was climbing down, so she had a general direction. Still, the forest was shockingly large, even by her standards. Treacherous, too. Zoe assumed that the locals didn't cross it often, judging from the lack of human tracks **[2].**

One week later, and the trees were starting to clear up. She must have been approaching the edge, then. She sped up her pace.

_There_. She stopped. The city of Latium **[3]** appeared before her.

Zoe frowned. Why would Orion be _there_? It had been a rather backwater spot, all things considered. It was fairly far away from mainland Greece, and even further from where the Amazons were **[4]**. Perhaps she made a mistake? Or had been led on a false trail? What could possibly be there?

Still, there _was _a temple of Artemis there, wasn't there? She could pay her respects, perhaps pray for more guidance. The trip might not be a total-

Zoe moved just in time to dodge an arrow. Glancing around wildly, she met the mechanical gaze of the giant she was looking for.

Zoe wasn't sure whether to bless or curse her luck.

"Impressive forest, isn't it?" Orion said, by way of greeting. "The locals called it the Silva Ciminia. It was considered virtually impossible to cross, but I suppose it wouldn't have been a challenge for you and me."

Zoe just stared. The former Hunter didn't seem that much different, though he seemed to radiate a...darker aura. Calmer. Less innocent.

Orion seemed to find her silence amusing, because he smirked. "How have you been, Zoe? Had Artemis sent you?"

That jolted her brain into action. "Amongst other people," she replied, summoning her bow. "Thou hast been killing Hunters. And Amazons."

"Ah yes," Orion acknowledged with a nod. "And I suppose Artemis sent you to hunt me down."

"Naturally," Zoe said. She readied her bow. "Why do you slaughter my sisters?"

"_Your _sisters," Orion said. "Exactly. You never considered me one of you. Why should I hold any love for you?"

"And the Amazons?"

He shrugged, "You're not that much different, really. They too needed to be knocked down a peg."

Zoe growled and fired her arrow. The giant intercepted it just as quickly, returning fire. Zoe cut it out of the air.

_Artemis_, she prayed. _Hear me._

"Did it all mean _nothing_ to thee?" She demanded. "Thou had friends in the Hunt. _I _considered thee one of us, before thou turned on us. Hast thou forgotten?"

Orion faltered a bit. Zoe took the opportunity to fire another arrow, which grazed his arm.

"Or hast thy time in Tartarus muddled thy mind?" She continued, pressing her advantage.

Orion's face twisted. "Do _not _mention Tartarus!" he snarled, his attacks becoming wilder. He slashed at the place Zoe's neck had been a split second before.

_Keep him unbalanced_, Zoe thought.

"I think," she began, "that thou art selfish and-" she dodged a knife strike.

"Ungrateful. We offered friendship-" parry.

"We offered family-" strike under his guard.

"Yet thou rejected it all for the one thing thou art forbidden to have," she slashed across his chest, leaving an ichory gash. "And now you blame all of us."

Zoe leapt back as Orion swept his bow like a club. "What does that make thee? Doth thou think thyself blameless? Or doth thou blame us to relieve thyself of guilt?"

"Don't talk about things you don't know, Zoe!" Zoe suddenly had the breath knocked out of her bow by the swing of his bow: she had forgotten to dodge. She had the sense to duck the next swing through the pain, though it put strain on her knee. She was fairly sure a few of her ribs were cracked.

_Artemis, my lady, I cannot hold him much longer._

Zoe was tiring. Orion could heal. She could only last so long.

She dodged another blow, before counterattacking. Orion parried the strike. The knife fell out of her hands.

Cursing, she managed to block the next stab with her hastily summoned bow. Her elbows buckled. Orion kicked her in the chest, sending her into an oak tree.

Zoe could taste blood in her mouth. She slid down, her legs no longer supporting her.

_Artemis, please hurry._

"I have missed you, Zoe," Orion sounded almost sad. "If it's any consolation, you fight well."

Then the forest rippled. A silver arrow sprouted from his neck.

Orion staggered back from the would-be fatal wound.

"Unacceptable, Orion," said the goddess, emerging from the trees. "I will not have you cut down anymore innocents in your vendetta against me."

Orion pulled the arrow out of his neck, gasping. "So you will have me go back to Tartarus? Again?"

Artemis's eyes narrowed with resolve. "If I must. Zoe, if you would…"

Zoe got ready to grab an arrow.

Orion's eyes glowed. "This isn't the end." Then, before either of them could react, he bolted, sprinting into the thick woods and disappearing.

They both stared at the spot where he had disappeared. Zoe's stomach felt heavy. _Another failure_.

Artemis spoke up. "Are you alright, Zoe?"

"Fine, my lady," she said. She tried to get up, but her legs didn't seem to be responding.

"Do not despair about Orion," Artemis said. "He had time to prepare. You did not. You were at a disadvantage. We will take him down, eventually."

The goddess sounded melancholy. Zoe abruptly realized that she wasn't the only one uncomfortable with killing an old friend.

Zoe changed the subject. "Why would he be here? There is nothing of value here."

Artemis tilted her head, considering. "You would be correct. Perhaps-" her eyes widened as if in realization. "How far are we from Latium?"

"Very close," Zoe said. She looked at Artemis, confused.

"_Hippolytos_," Artemis said. She broke into a run, before realizing that Zoe wasn't following. She came back and slid her arm under Zoe's shoulders. "Apologies, Zoe. Can you walk with me?"

Zoe nodded. Together they trekked towards the city.

* * *

**[1] Sciron: The dude with the smelly feet and the giant turtle. Hazel and Jason encountered him in _The House of Hades_.**

**[2] The Silva Ciminia: The Cimini Forest. An extremely treacherous forest that separated Latium from Etruria. The Roman historian Livy mentioned it. It formed part of the forerange of the Apennines, a mountain range that went through the Italian Peninsula. I think the mountain gods appeared at the beginning of the _House of Hades._**

**[3] Latium was a city in Italy, close to where Rome would be founded. It's located in modern day Lazio. Apparently, that was the place Artemis spirited Hippolytos off to after his resurrection. This particular city would be at the center of much political strife in the coming years with the arrival of Aeneas. You know, _The_ Aeneas. Nothing like a civil war to found a city. Apparently, the language Latin was named after these people. It gets explained better in the _Aeneid_, but apparently, Juno was finally convinced to let go of her vendetta against Aeneas (yeah, uh, she had one of these) if Rome kept the language and customs alive.**

**[4] Ah, the Amazons. Where the _heck_ was their kingdom? Well, after much research (mostly surfing around on Google)...we don't know. Historians _think_ they might have been in Ukraine after a bunch of Archaeologists uncovered a tomb full of female warriors. But seriously? Not sure. From the location of Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, you know, one of the seven wonders of the world, presumably built by Amazons, I think we can say that their kingdom was further east from Mainland Greece.**

**So there you have it! Remember, reviews are appreciated, and I'd love suggestions to where I should take the story next. Thank you and until next time.**


	27. 3rd Strikes: Condemnation

**Hello, children. I am back with another chapter.**

**This is your cue to cheer. Yay!**

**There are a few anachronisms in this one, but that's for fun. Hippolytos shows up again. What, did you think he's dead or something?**

**Not yet.**

**Uh, be sure to review for bonus content (5 reviews per bonus chapter. Link in my bio.) Constructive feedback and feedback in general makes me happy and keeps me motivated to write, especially since school's starting soon and I'll be busy.**

**Aside from that, have fun and enjoy!**

* * *

Italy.

One would think Orion was going on vacation. Maybe taking a nice, long break from his rampage in a place conveniently out of the way. Perhaps he was planning on retiring.

Not so. He was fairly sure Artemis would never let him go free after what he had pulled. That worked fine for him: he had no intention of settling down anytime soon, anyway. Indeed, he was venturing to a specific spot in Italy because he had heard of a rumor.

Apparently, Artemis's _other _former male Hunter now presided over one of her temples in Latium. Evidently, his death hadn't been quite as permanent as originally presumed, because if the rumors were true, Artemis had enlisted the help of Asclepius to revive him.

Orion would be lying if he said that he hadn't felt a pang of hurt from that. All the effort he put into trying to woo Artemis, and _this _man got the special treatment? All Orion got was a scorpion sting and an arrow in the throat. Not that he cared about what Artemis thought anymore. Definitely not.

The trees obscured his view of the constellations.

Orion had taken the scenic route: he was in no hurry. He had decided to forgo running across the water, as for some reason, the seas were _extremely _unpredictable as of late. It was almost as if the gods were trying their best to prevent certain heroes from reaching their destinations **[1]**. Thus, he had chosen to go on land, circumventing the sea altogether. It was quite long, and he had to climb quite a few mountains, but come on: those _views._ He had climbed the Apennines a few days ago, so he could guess he was somewhere on the Eastern side of the peninsula, and now he was in the middle of some forest.

The forest was quite dense, denser than most forests he had stayed in, and he could see why most mortals spoke of it with such fear. That was fine by him: he wasn't a mortal, and he had enough experience traversing through forests, anyway. If anything, the trek was rather relaxing.

He settled down on a relatively dry patch of dirt. That would be enough walking for the day. Time to sleep.

* * *

People in the city were somewhat surprised when a rather tall man appeared out of the Silva Ciminia a few days later. When prompted with how in Erebus he crossed it alone, Orion just responded with a mild, "Oh, is that what it's called?" before slipping away. The locals would just have to draw their own conclusions.

He was on a mission, after all.

Now, if only he could get directions from them…

He walked up to the first person he saw. "Excuse me," he said, keeping his tone polite. "Would you know where the Temple of Artemis is?"

The mortal bread vendor peered at him. Orion waited patiently: he had plenty of time.

"You are the forest man," he said at last. Orion nodded, expecting more information, but none seemed forthcoming.

"_Right_. So, the temple-"

"_Vir ab silvā_, **[2]**" the man insisted, in case he didn't get the message.

Orion groaned, reminded of NPCs and other things that he had no business knowing several millennia before video games were invented. This was going to be harder than he thought.

After about a dozen citizens, three false starts, two painters' houses, and a minor mental breakdown that narrowly avoided grievous bodily harm, Orion was able to get directions from a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage. From him, he learned three things.

One, that the temple of Artemis did not exist because the closest deity the locals had to her was _Diana_, whose description sounded similar enough to Artemis that Orion got the feeling that the two were going to be confused and mashed up somehow anyway, sometime in the future. Two, that the first part of Artemis' name, _Arte_, sounded very close to the ablative form for the Latin word for _art, _and that the its accusative form, _artem_, sounded even closer to "Artemis" (which did explain why he kept being redirected to artists' houses). And three, Diana's temple wasn't much of a temple as it was a sacred grove.

Compared to some of the grand temples he had seen in, say, _Athens_, Diana's temple didn't look like much. There was barely anything there, aside from a carved statue. **[3]** Still, he supposed it made sense for a forest goddess to have a sacred grove instead of a temple. He marched on.

He found a middle aged man tending to the trees.

"Good afternoon," the man greeted. "You wouldn't happen to have brought horses, would you?"

"Uh…" Orion blinked. "No?"

"That's good," the man smiled. "I had a traumatic incident when I was younger, you know, involving horses. So as the _Rex Nemorensis _**[4] **of this place, I banned horses from this sanctuary. They call me Virbius, by the way. Are you here to visit?"

"I'm looking for someone, actually. I think his name was Hippolytos."

The man raised an eyebrow, "And why would you be looking for him?"

"Curiosity, mainly. I've heard that he was a former follower of Artemis, and had gotten resurrected from the dead. I want to meet him."

"Is that all?"

"Well, and then there's the fact that I'm a former follower as well. I'm seeking a kindred spirit."

"Ah," the man nodded. "Well, lucky for you, you don't have to look far. I'm Hippolytos."

"...You?"

"There's no need to sound so surprised. I know I don't look the part. The immortality thing wore off following my first death. May I enquire your name?"

"I'm Orion."

To his credit, the other man did not draw his sword and attack the moment he revealed his name. "Orion, huh?" Hippolytos scrutinized him. "So you are. The goddess talked about you, you know, back when I was in the Hunt. A lot. She was most upset following your death. I thought giants can't come back after they've been killed."

"Yes, but I've always been the exception." Artemis _had_ grieved for him, then. That...was good to know. At least she wasn't _completely_ heartless.

_But still heartless enough to abandon you_, he reminded himself. _After everything you did in her name._

Oblivious to Orion's inner conflict, a smile played on the Hippolytos's face. "Fair enough. Did Dia-Artemis know about..." he waved a vague finger in his direction.

"Yes," Orion said succinctly. Hippolytos didn't know about how he had defected, then. That was good, probably. Less chance of being attacked while carrying on a conversation. "So why are you here? Attending her sacred grove, I mean. I thought you were released from her service."

Hippolytos shrugged, "I chose this. I've always related well to her, even well into adulthood. No marriage. No…" he made a face. "Sex. The Hunt was the first place I felt accepted for not wanting any of those things. Everywhere else, it was always, 'Why aren't you married yet, Hippolytos? That girl's pretty, do you want her? That boy is nice, perhaps you should go for that instead.' That sort of thing. And that's fine if you do like these things: I'm not going to judge that. But there's always this kind of expectation that I _would _one day marry, and I _would _like it, and they made me feel like it was supposed to be something _everybody_ should want. But I _don't _feel that way. So remaining in her service was a way of...thanking her, I guess. For letting me see that stuff like these were optional."

"I see." Orion didn't know how to respond to that. It sounded like he was holding it in for some time. "So, you and Artemis…"

"I owe her a lot," Hippolytos agreed. "We parted on good terms, and she helped me set up here. The name I go by nowadays, Virbius, was a nice play on words, you know. She came up with it. _Vir bis_. A man twice. Now I attend her sacred grove. Well, her counterpart's, anyway. It's a bit confusing, but they're similar enough that they might as well be the same goddess. **[5]**"

"And you're alright with that? Why not return to your father?"

Hippolytos raised an eyebrow, "Would you? He was the one who caused my death in the first place. Whatever familial obligations I had to him were annulled."

"Oh," Orion said. Hippolytos seemed to be throwing him off balance at every turn, and the other man didn't seem to be even trying. The killed-by-one's-own-parent thing hit a bit too close to home. "That...makes sense."

Hippolytos hummed. "And what about you? Are you still in Artemis's service?"

"Uh…" Orion shifted uncomfortably. "Not really. Not anymore. I kind of just do my own thing now."

"I see," Hippolytos said. "I suppose that makes sense. Too many uncomfortable memories?"

...Sure, he'd go with that. "Yes. The whole dying thing, you know…"

"Yes, I've heard. A scorpion, was it?"

Orion shuddered involuntarily at the mention of the gigantic arachnid. "Yep. Not fun."

"I understand. I'm the same with horses. You have my condolences," Hippolytos reached up and patted his shoulder. "Well, it's been great talking to you, Orion, but I really must get back to the plants, so…"

"Yeah," Orion said, taking the hint. That was fine, he needed to leave before Hippolytos discovered what he had _really_ been doing, anyway. "I'd better get going too."

"Come back anytime," Hippolytos said.

"Of course," Orion said. He wouldn't, of course, because he was fairly sure Zoe was tracking him across the Peninsula as they spoke and there was very little hope of Hippolytos not knowing about what he had done once Zoe made it to Aricia. But it was nice while it lasted.

To be honest, Orion had no idea what to make of Hippolytos. He had marched in expecting...he didn't really know what he expected. To be jealous, perhaps. His mother had made it sound like Artemis had developed feelings for him. And yes, he knew that he should take anything Gaea said with a grain of salt, but the whole resurrection thing did sound like a romantic gesture. And true, the whole placing-your-best-friend-in-the-stars thing sounded like a romantic gesture, too, so he probably should have realized sooner, but he was too caught up in his own dark thoughts to think about that.

He had expected Hippolytos to be like him. Following Artemis around because he had loved her, even though it was forbidden. He hadn't expected Hippolytos to want nothing to do with love. Hippolytos had been killed by one of his parents, too, but he had rejected his father, unlike Orion, who had embraced his mother and by extension, his destiny. Hippolytos was, in a word, _different_ from him. They had been in similar situations, true, but almost every choice Hippolytos had made were the exact opposite of what _he _had made **[6]**.

It was disconcerting.

Perhaps he had been going about this the wrong way. Perhaps he should let go of his bitterness and hatred, turn over a new leaf. Befriend Artemis again, but this time, stay _purely_ platonic. Perhaps-

He stopped. His feet had carried him back towards the Silva Ciminia. About thirty feet away from Zoe.

The girl hadn't spotted him yet, drained and unfocused from the journey through the dense and treacherous forest as she was, but she walked with purpose in her step. The purpose being to kill _him_, and he reminded himself that he had burned that bridge already.

So he aimed an arrow and fired.

* * *

"So Orion went rogue?" Virbius asked.

He had been somewhat surprised when Artemis all but burst into the sacred grove, Zoe in tow. He had been even more surprised when they told him that Orion had been going around killing Hunters and Amazons. The giant had been perfectly polite when he visited. Nothing to suggest that he was a mass murderer.

Zoe nodded, wincing as Virbius splinted her damaged knee. "We believe that his time in Tartarus had corrupted him. He is now working for the Earth goddess."

So that was what Orion meant when he said he was doing his own thing. "Then I'm sorry. For not keeping him here until you arrived."

"You couldn't have known, Virbius," Artemis reassured him. "It was my own fault for not warning you. Though in hindsight," she added thoughtfully, "it might have saved your life. I'm satisfied with that, if nothing else."

Virbius smiled, as one did when an immortal goddess admitted that she appreciates one's existence. "Thank you, my lady."

"Now if you don't mind, would you tell me what you talked about? This might be important."

"Yes. Of course."

* * *

**So yeah, this chapter is research heavy. I've managed to confuse myself on multiple occasions, which I think is pretty telling. It did _not_ help that Diana was actually a distinct goddess with Roman origins before the whole merging thing happened. **

**[1] The list includes, but is not limited to, Odysseus, Aeneas, Agamemnon (who got murdered right after, isn't that fun?), Locrian Ajax (who flipping died on the way. To be fair, he deserved it), Diomedes, and Menelaus. Why so many, you ask? Well, Aeneas because Juno didn't want him to found Rome because of a prophecy that Rome will destroy Carthage (a city that she really, really liked). If you'll notice, this is a direct reference to the Punic Wars. The rest got delayed/killed because of the numerous sacrilegious stuff they conducted while sacking Troy. Like raping Cassandra (yes, _that_ Cassandra) on Athena's altar. Or killing the king on Zeus's altar, just to name a few. Nestor was probably the only one who actually returned home safely and soundly, since he didn't participate in this objectionable behavior. From this, we can draw some fairly obvious conclusions: Greek heroes weren't heroes because they were _good_. They were heroes because they're strong. **

**[2] Literally "man from the forest." Not exactly how I was expecting to use my high school Latin, but I'm glad to have this knowledge nonetheless. I'm fairly comfortable with using Latin here because the Latin language was descended from the language they were speaking then, anyway. **

**[3] So, there actually _was_ a temple there. It just hadn't been built yet. And there was a cult in Aricia (a city in Latium) dedicated to the goddess Diana. Look up Diana Nemorensis. **

**[4] Rex Nemorensis. Literally "King of Remi." So the tradition was that in the middle of the grove, there was this oak tree that only slaves were allowed to break off the branches. Once they do, they fight the current Rex Nemorensis in single combat. If they win, they take the Rex Nemorensis's place (since, you know, the person's dead). If they lose, they die. **

**[5] ****This whole thing is a bit confusing, because Diana had origins in Italy and only later became identified with Artemis, so why the heck would Hippolytos be doing there? But later myths (ie, after the merging) say that Hippolytos was taken to the Diana's, the Roman version of Artemis, cult to become the first _Rex Nemorensis_ after being revived, going by the name Virbius instead, later becoming a god, who is also a Roman deity. Now, I _can _take this at face value and just go "Yep, that's totally what happened." But that would be ignoring Diana's Roman origins, which I don't really want to do. So I made a compromise: the myth did happen, but Artemis and Diana could probably sense that the two of them were going to be conflated with each other, anyway, so they agree to help each other out whenever their paths cross.**

**[6] So as I was writing this, I realized how much Hippolytos sounded like a foil to Orion. Similar circumstances, but different choices and outcomes. So I thought that maybe we can have Orion become aware of this by himself. So yeah.**

**Also, about replies to reviews, in case that people are wondering: I generally respond to people with accounts via PM, because I'm not sure how they'd like their privacy. The ones without accounts are a bit tricky, because I couldn't PM them, and I don't know if people would appreciate being replied to (even by their penname) in a story that everyone can see. So if it seems like I'm ignoring you, I'm sorry. I do read your reviews and I appreciate every one of them. Please do tell me if you are alright with addressing you in the story, and I will respond.**

**So I think that's it for the author's notes. I'm sorry if it's a bit long, but I did a _lot_ of research for this chapter, by my standards, at least, and I don't want it to go to waste. So yeah. What do you think, by the way? Too much information? Too little? Just right? Should I keep putting footnotes at the bottom? Tell me: I welcome feedback!**

**Peace out!**


	28. 3rd Guesses: Traps and Revelations

**Hey kids! **

**So I'm off to college again, so updates are gonna be slow for a while. I'll do it when I have time, but it's gonna be rough. I can maybe squeeze in one more chapter before I get buried in work.**

**So yeah.**

**Read. enjoy, leave a review. Reviews are great, and since I've already prewritten a few bonus chapters, I could just send a chapter every time you review five times. **

* * *

Perfection.

Britomartis was beautiful and deadly, with eyes fierce like a panther's. The very ground she stood on reacted to her presence, all living creatures fell silent in awe. She was dangerous. She was breathtaking...

She was standing with her arms crossed, amused by Apollo's singing praises.

"My," she said, "you must be truly desperate."

Apollo gave her the puppy eyes. As Britomartis had spent a great deal of time hanging around wolf pups and their domesticated cousins back when she was a Hunter, it didn't work.

"I promise not to flirt with you for a decade?"

"And why," Britomartis raised an eyebrow, "would I want that? Your flirtations are a source of entertainment."

Apollo gave a single wince. He hadn't quite recovered from the lion den, then. Britomartis hid a smirk as he struggled to come up with a response.

"...I'll flirt with you _more_ for a decade?"

Britomartis deadpanned, "Try harder."

"Tell me what you want, then!" He cried, throwing up his arms.

Britomartis did allow herself to smirk this time, "Well, there _is_ a thing that needed doing. It's usually a thing reserved for demigods, so it should be no problem for a big, strong god like you…"

* * *

Britomartis let him off easy this time. It was only partially intentional.

Who would have thought that Apollo would have made such a great drag queen? The younger god even looked like he was enjoying himself. Perhaps she should have gone with the snake pit after all.

Oh well, there was always next time.

"Alright," the god appeared on the ground below her, so that he was looking up at her, perched on top of some rocky ledge. "I did what you asked for," he held up a box full of griffin eggs, while looking around at any possible nets that he could have stepped in. Silly boy. As if she'd try to trap him while he was holding griffin eggs **[1]**. No, she'd wait until he let go of them.

He glowered at her "Are you happy now? Do I even _want _to know why those are in there? Or why you couldn't just get it yourself?"

_A recent incident involving Greek fire explosives,_ she thought.

"Probably not," she said instead, sweetly. "You did wonderfully. And looked...what was that word?..._Fabulous_ while doing it."

Apollo brightened up a little at that, before seeming to remember that he had other things to get to. "_Now_ will you tell me what I want to know?"

"Yes, yes, alright," she sighed dramatically, as if _she_ was the one doing him a favor. "Orion's back."

Apollo blinked, clearly not expecting a straight answer from her. "What?"

"Orion is back," she repeated, as if he were a particularly slow child. "From Tartarus."

"But how?" Apollo frowned, "I killed him."

Britomartis gave him a moment to process how meaningless that statement was in the world they occupied.

"Constellations," she explained with a vague handwave in the direction of the sky. "Evidently, the piece of his essence used to make his constellation was enough for him to use as an anchor to the surface world."

"Huh," Apollo scowled. "And what's that got to do with my sister?"

The last time Apollo had seen Artemis, it was at the winter solstice meeting. She had looked weary and on edge, not even bothering to argue with Aphrodite like she usually did. She had requested permission to allow her Hunters to spend the solstice on Olympus, and had left early when it was denied, not even bothering to attend the celebrations.

Apollo had tried to talk to her. She had brushed him off, insisting that it was none of his business, and that she was absolutely fine.

He had persisted. She had snapped. Choice words had been exchanged.

And Apollo still had no idea what was going on with her.

It took a few months to realize that if Artemis was not going to tell him, one of her minions might. It took a few more months to track down Britomartis and convince her to tell him what was going on.

For a price, of course. Britomartis knew how to barter. What was she going to do, give him vital information for _free_? What a laughable concept.

"Orion came back wrong," Britomartis settled on. "He's become...problematic."

"Problematic how?"

"Problematic as in, he was a homicidal maniac."

"Oh."

"Yes. _Oh_," Britomartis fixed him with a look that Apollo couldn't quite interpret. "He's been attacking Hunters, Amazons, and other strong women who wished to be independent. Artemis had been stretching herself thin trying to stop the damage. Literally. She had been running around trying to be everywhere at once, and that was taking a toll. Much as she insisted that she was fine, she needed help, Apollo."

Apollo went through several emotions in a few short minutes. Triumph, as he had been right about Orion being bad news. Anger, because _nobody_ messed with his sister like that. Hurt, because Artemis didn't think to confide in her own twin brother. Frustration, because his sister was too stubborn to ask for help.

"And you're saying you want me to help," he guessed. "And that's why you're telling me all of this."

Britomartis shrugged, "Well, _somebody_ needs to, who has the power and is trustworthy enough. That narrows down the pool significantly, don't you think?"

Apollo decided to take that as a compliment. "So if you want me to help, why make it so difficult for me to?"

"Fun, mostly. You looked great in drag."

"You made me retrieve griffin eggs because you thought it was fun?!"

"Hush now, Apollo," she smiled sweetly at him. "You're just complaining because you don't like doing fetch quests. Now, if you don't mind, I have business elsewhere." She leapt down from the ledge on which she was perched, swiping the box of griffin eggs from Apollo's hands. "And you didn't hear it from me!"

* * *

Apollo let himself relax after Britomartis's departure. Beautiful as she was, she had always managed to set him on edge.

That girl's name had been horribly misleading. **[2]**.

Why hadn't Artemis said anything? Things must have been bad if even _Britomartis_ thought that Artemis needed help from him. When had their relationship gotten so distant, that Artemis didn't confide in him anymore?

Well, that was fine. Apollo knew what was going on now. He'd just have to go up to her, tell her that he knew, kill Orion for her, and save his little sister from the big, bad giant. Not necessarily in that order. And then they'll hug, Apollo would tell her that he forgave her, and everything would be back to normal again.

Yes, that would turn out perfectly. There would be absolutely no chance that he'd be shot at with arrows and rejected instead. Absolutely none.

Apollo took a step towards where he knew his sister to be...and stepped on the trap.

He discovered his talent as a countertenor as the net lifted him clean off the ground.

He cursed, "Britomartis, I _swear-!_"

* * *

Artemis stared at the box of griffin eggs that Britomartis held close to her chest. "I thought you were banned from the Amazon stronghold after you set off one of your bombs 'for fun.'"

"Oh, I was," Britomartis said cheerfully. "I found a loophole."

"Of _course _you did," Artemis muttered. "Are you up to the task?"

"Oh, yeah," Britomartis was rubbing her hands together in an excellent impression of a mad scientist. All that was missing was the _Mwahahahahahaha_. Not that anyone knew what a mad scientist was yet. But if they did, they would agree. "This is the biggest task I've been given in a while. I'm going to have _fun_ doing this."

"Glad to know you'll be enjoying yourself," Artemis gave her half-sister a smile. "Take your time, and let me know when you're done."

"Yeah, sure," Britomartis paused on her way out of Artemis's tent. "I talked to Apollo today."

"Oh?"

"He knows," she answered the unspoken question. "He didn't say anything like, 'I told you so,' though he might have been saving it for when you two meet again. I think he wants to help."

A pause. Then, "Britomartis-"

"You need help, my lady," she insisted. "You're going to end up hurting yourself at this rate, and that wouldn't help anybody. You might be a goddess, and you might be more powerful than I am, but even you have limits."

"Thank you, Britomartis," Artemis said finally. Her tone said that she was dismissed.

Britomartis bowed and left, because she knew that Artemis was thinking it over. She turned back to her current project.

A hidden sanctuary, that could expand as needed...something like that needed a name.

Something after herself, perhaps. She was the creator, after all: she was allowed to take pride in her own creation. Also, apparently, "TARDIS" had already been taken.

Stupid time traveling brats.

A "House of Nets" seemed appropriate. She _was _going to make it out of nets, after all **[3]. **They were her specialty and everything! With a name like that, she was going to make it the best project ever. Artemis was going to be _pleased_.

* * *

**[1] Griffins were Britomartis's sacred animal.**

**[2] Britomartis's name translates to "sweet maiden," apparently. She is, in fact, not sweet.**

**[3] And that is the beginning of the Waystation that showed up in the _Dark Prophecy_.**

**And that's it for the author's notes. I'm sorry if this chapter was shorter than what you're used to, but I've really been busy.**

**Don't forget to leave a review!**


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